Mechanisms of celestial navigation in Drosophila

就像古代的水手一样，许多会飞的动物有能力利用地球和天空的线索在地球上长距离航行。天空中有一个特别可靠的特征，动物可以用它作为指南针，那就是太阳光在大气中散射时发生偏振的模式。该项目将研究动物如何利用偏振天窗导航，利用最先进的遗传和生理方法，这些方法可用于普通果蝇，果蝇。这一结果将为大脑回路如何进行精确计算以指导运动和其他运动行为这一普遍问题提供见解。将开发拟议研究中使用的实验装置的简化、廉价版本，以供教育和推广使用。这些发现也将有利于设计小型、节能的自主飞行器，这些飞行器可以在不需要GPS的情况下执行民用和军事应用的有用任务。利用这种实验功能强大的遗传模型生物，将有可能确定大脑中专门的细胞和电路如何检测和处理偏振光，并将其用作导航的指南针参考。该项目将使用定制的飞行模拟器，在模拟器中，动物在人造天空下航行，可以进行实验操作。该研究还将采用最近开发的双光子钙成像技术，在自由飞行的受试者中测量导航任务执行时大脑相关神经回路内细胞的活动，这是以前从未达到的分析水平。这些研究的结果将通过在同行评议的期刊上发表的出版物和在科学会议上发表的报告来传播。

Like ancient mariners, many flying animals have the ability to navigate long distances across the globe using cues from the earth and sky. One particularly reliable feature of the sky that animals can use as a compass is the pattern by which light from the sun is polarized as it scatters in the atmosphere. This project will study how animals navigate using polarized skylight, by exploiting state-of-the art genetic and physiological approaches that are available in the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The results will provide insight into the general question of how circuits in the brain can make accurate calculations that guide locomotion and other motor actions. Simplified, inexpensive versions of the experimental devices used in the proposed studies will be developed for use in education and outreach. The findings will also benefit ongoing efforts to engineer small, energy-efficient autonomous air vehicles that can perform useful missions for civilian and military applications without the need of GPS.Using this experimentally powerful genetic model organism, it will be possible to determine how specialized cells and circuits in the brain detect and process polarized light and use it as a compass reference for navigation. The project will make use of custom-built flight simulators, in which animals navigate under an artificial sky that may be experimentally manipulated. The research will also employ recently developed techniques of two-photon calcium imaging in freely flying subjects for measuring the activity of cells within relevant neural circuits of the brain as navigation tasks are being performed, a level of analysis not previously achieved. Results from these studies will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals, and through presentations at scientific conferences.