The molecular basis of neural wiring specificity
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The nervous system is incredibly complex. An adult human brain consists of about 86 billion neurons forming ~10^14 connections. Even in simpler organisms such as the fruit fly, there are around 200,000 neurons in its brain forming ~10^7 connections. Precise formation of these neuronal connections ensures proper information processing, which underlies all nervous system functions. Errors made during the formation of these neuronal connections can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders, such as intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. Therefore, it is critical to understand the molecular basis of neural wiring specificity. In this dissertation, I used the Drosophila olfactory circuit as a model to study molecules and transcriptional programs that underlie the precise formation of neural circuits. This circuit is an excellent model for studying neural wiring specificity because of its stereotypic and genetically encoded neuronal connection: ~50 types of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) form precise one-to-one synaptic connections with ~50 types of corresponding projection neurons (PNs) in ~50 glomerular compartments in the antennal lobe. First, I report that Fish-lips, a transmembrane protein, mediates repulsion between non-synaptic partner ORN axons and PN dendrites to prevent misconnections (Chapter 2). Second, I describe the single-cell transcriptomes of PNs at different developmental stages, which reveal distinct transcriptomic programs unfolding at each stage (Chapter 3). Lastly, I show how a single transcription factor, Acj6, controls wiring specificity in different neuron types by specifying distinct combinatorial expression of cell-surface proteins (Chapter 4).
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Xie, Qijing |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Luo, Liqun, 1966- |
| Thesis advisor | Luo, Liqun, 1966- |
| Thesis advisor | Clandinin, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert), 1970- |
| Thesis advisor | Kaltschmidt, Julia |
| Thesis advisor | Shen, Kang, 1972- |
| Degree committee member | Clandinin, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert), 1970- |
| Degree committee member | Kaltschmidt, Julia |
| Degree committee member | Shen, Kang, 1972- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Neurosciences Program |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Qijing Xie. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Neurosciences Program. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/gz445zj2301 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Qijing Xie
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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