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Volume 17, Number 4, Issue of February 15, 1997 pp. 1493-1504
Copyright ©1997 Society for Neuroscience

Experience-Dependent Developmental Plasticity in the Optic Lobe of Drosophila melanogaster

Received Aug. 27, 1996; revised Nov. 21, 1996; accepted Dec. 2, 1996.

Martin Barth¹, Helmut V. B. Hirsch², Ian A. Meinertzhagen³, and Martin Heisenberg¹

¹ Theodor-Boveri Institut für Biowissenschaften, Lehrstuhl für Genetik, 97074 Würzburg, Germany, ² Neurobiology Research Center and Department of Biology, The University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York 12222, and ³ Neuroscience Institute, Life Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1

Early experience can affect nervous system development in both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. We have now demonstrated that visual stimulation modifies the size of the optic lobes in the laboratory fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. Monocular deprivation (painting over one eye) decreases the aggregate volume of the lamina, medulla, and lobula plate by up to 6%. The laminae of control flies kept in complete darkness showed a more robust volume difference that could be as much as 30%. An electron microscopy study revealed that the changes in the lamina are largely attributable to an increase in the terminals of the photoreceptor cell axons. The volume of the lamina increases during the first 24 hr after emergence, and it grows more in the light than in darkness. When flies are kept in the dark for the first 12 hr of their adult life and are then brought back to light for the next 3.5 days, the lamina is almost as small as in flies raised for 4 d in constant darkness. Twelve hour dark shifts at a later time are less effective. This finding suggests a critical period for lamina development during day 1 of the adult. The lamina depends on visual stimulation to maintain its size during the first 5 d after emergence. Dark-rearing for 1 d or more at any stage during that period decreases its volume to the level of flies raised in constant darkness. A lamina that is once reduced in size seems not to recover.

Key words: Drosophila melanogaster; visual system; optic lobe development; structural plasticity; critical period; dark-rearing

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