Remodeling dendrites during insect metamorphosis

The genesis of dendritic shape during development sets in place key characteristics of a neuron's physiology and connectivity. During this construction, a cell interprets intrinsic cell-specific developmental programs and cues from the environment to generate its final phenotype. In insects that undergo complete metamorphosis certain neurons function in the larval nervous system and then remodel to generate an adult-specific arbor. By studying the dendrites of neurons that undergo such a cellular metamorphosis, one can explore the mechanisms that underlie both stereotyped pruning and local remodeling. Live imaging techniques in intact Drosophila have been especially useful in examining the outgrowth of the adult-specific dendritic arbors in remodeling dendritic arborizing (da) sensory neurons. These neurons show an initial scaffold-building phase during which the cell establishes the overall shape of the arbor and then switch to an elaboration phase where the arbor is filled out with higher order branches. The cellular machinery employed during these two phases is different, with branch retraction being a prominent feature of the scaffold building phase but absent from the elaboration phase. The transition between these two modes does not appear to be "hard-wired" but is plastic and under the extrinsic control of developmental hormones. This transition in branch dynamics may also involve changes in calcium signaling in the growing arbor. The potential relationship between hormone-induced transcriptional change and the calcium dynamics in dendritic morphogenesis is discussed.