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Updated: Jun 6, 2026
Labeling of Single Cells in the Central Nervous System of Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: March 4, 2013
Dual-labeling method for electron microscopy to characterize synaptic connectivity using genetically encoded
Nobuaki K Tanaka1, Louis Dye, Mark Stopfer
1National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 35 Lincoln Drive, msc 3715, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. nktanaka@cp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
None:
Light and electron microscopy (LM and EM) both offer important advantages for characterizing neuronal circuitry in intact brains: LM can reveal the general patterns neurons trace between brain areas, and EM can confirm synaptic connections between identified neurons within a small area. In a few species, genetic labeling with fluorescent proteins has been used with LM to visualize many kinds of neurons and to analyze their morphologies and projection patterns. However, combining these large-scale patterns with the fine detail available in EM analysis has been a technical challenge. To analyze the synaptic connectivity of neurons expressing fluorescent markers with EM, we developed a dual-labeling method for use with pre-embedded brains. In Drosophila expressing genetic labels and also injected with markers we visualized synaptic connections among two populations of neurons in the AL, one of which has been shown to mediate a specific function, odor evoked neural oscillation.
