( A): Image of adult female ( left) and male ( right) Canton-S Drosophila melanogaster ( B): Anterior view of adult fly brain carrying serotonin transporter protein trap (Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center no. Finally, experiments in Drosophila can be readily scaled up to an extent, which allows for drug screening with reasonably high throughput.ĭrosophila melanogaster ( A) and adult fly brain ( B, C). These models are also useful for proof-of-concept studies to examine the corrective action of therapeutic strategies. Flies harboring mutated human orthologs provide models which can be interrogated to understand the effect of the mutant protein on cell fate and neuronal connectivity. This has allowed for addressing the role of individual neurons in circuits, which determine attraction and aversion, sleep and arousal, odor preference, etc. Finally, genetic manipulation can be restricted to single fly neurons. Similarly, Drosophila genes can be replaced by their human orthologs including disease-associated alleles. A sophisticated genetic tool box is available, which allows for targeting virtually any gene with amazing precision in Drosophila melanogaster. They differ in their projections and in their gene expression profile. Mammalian dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons are known to be heterogeneous. Their activity regulates behavioral functions equivalent to those in mammals, e.g., motor activity, reward and aversion, memory formation, feeding, sexual appetite, etc. The brain of Drosophila melanogaster is comprised of some 100,000 neurons, 127 and 80 of which are dopaminergic and serotonergic, respectively.

Fly brain dopaminergic neurons