A study of neural mechanism for directional control of locomotion in zebrafish

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25830020
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: National Institute of Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Asakawa Kazuhide 国立遺伝学研究所, 個体遺伝研究系, 助教 (30515664)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: locomotion / tactile stimulus / hindbrain / mafb / escape / MDL cell / zebrafish

Outline of Final Research Achievements

An animal moving through the environment maintains or changes its direction of progression based on internal and/or external sensory information. To understand neural mechanisms underlying directional control of locomotion, we studied the tactile-mediated escape response in zebrafish larvae as a model, in which the direction of escape changes depending upon the position of the tactile stimulus on the body surface. By using two-poton calcium imaging, we monitored the neural activity evoked by the tactile stimulus in the hindbrain mafb-positive area. From this assay, we identified a group of neurons that showed different neural activities depending upon the position of tactile stimulus, which were designated as MDL cells. Furthermore, MDL cells turned out to possess the axons extending toward the spinal cord. The spatial response property and the axonal projection toward the spinal cord raise a possibility that ML cells regulate the escape direction according to the touch position.

Free Research Field

神経科学、遺伝学、細胞生物学