On Friday, researchers announced the completion of a map detailing every neuron in the brain of a male fruit fly. The resulting “connectome” is expected to accelerate neurobiology research and refine tools for mapping more complex nervous systems. The project was a collaboration between biologists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus and computer scientists at Google.
The connectome catalogs the connections between neurons, which dictate how information flows through the brain. This includes listing each neuron’s location in three-dimensional space and all of its synaptic connections to other neurons. While the fruit fly nervous system contains roughly 150,000 neurons, the brain itself contains only a fraction of those, with the new work discovering over 300 million synaptic connections.
According to Gerry Rubin, a senior group leader at the Janelia Research Campus and a senior author on the new paper, the project required a unique combination of skills in brain preparation and image interpretation. He noted that building a complete picture of the synapses is a task that cannot be achieved by humans in a manageable timeframe. Researchers also completed a connectome of the female Drosophila earlier this year. Both the male and female connectomes will provide neurobiologists with a valuable tool for understanding how the brain works, beginning with sensory input and culminating in outputs like memory formation and muscle movement.
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