We study how sensory information is transformed into behaviour in the fly brain. We mostly use the olfactory system, because olfaction is a relatively shallow sense: just two synapses separate the sensory periphery from neurons that form olfactory memories or initiate innate olfactory behaviours.

We are investigating the circuit logic of innate behaviours, especially sexually dimorphic behaviours dependent on pheromones. We are also interested in how learned behaviours interact with and modify innate behavioural responses. Recently connectomics data have generated many new hypotheses in both areas that we aim to test.

In the next 3 years we will be collaboratively generating and analysing complete brain and nerve cord connectomes for both male and female flies (see https://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/research/groups/connectomics). These should be the first complete connectomes for animals with eyes, legs and complex cognitive and motor behaviours and should offer many opportunities for circuit neuroscience. For example, we will carry out global analysis of sex differences in the central nervous system which will have a major impact on experimental work.

We encourage any student fascinated by the synaptic, neuronal and network basis of behaviour to apply. This includes not just biologists and neuroscientists but also computer scientists, physicists and mathematicians, who could have much to contribute to both dry lab connectomics research as well as technically intensive experimental brain and behaviour work.

References

Schlegel, P, Bates, AS, Stürner, T, Jagannathan, SR, Drummond, N, Hsu, J, Serratosa, Capdevila, L, Javier, A, Marin, EC, Barth-Maron, A, Tamimi, IF, Li, F, Rubin, GM, Plaza, SM, Costa, M, Jefferis, GSXE. (2021}
Information flow, cell types and stereotypy in a full olfactory connectome.
Elife. May 25;10:e66018. doi: 10.7554/eLife.66018.

Dolan, M.-J., Belliart-Guerin, G., Bates, A.S., Aso, Y., Frechter, S., Roberts, R.J.V., Schlegel, P., Wong, A., Hammad, A., Bock, D., Rubin, G.M., Preat, T., Placais, P.Y., and Jefferis, G.S.X.E. (2018).
Communication from learned to innate olfactory processing centers is required for memory retrieval in Drosophila.
Neuron. 100(3):651-668 .e8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.08.037

Zheng Z, Lauritzen JS, Perlman E, Robinson CG, Nichols M, Milkie D, Torrens O, Price J, Fisher CB, Sharifi N, Calle-Schuler SA, Kmecova L, Ali IJ, Karsh B, Trautman ET, Bogovic JA, Hanslovsky P, Jefferis GSXE, Kazhdan M, Khairy K, Saalfeld S, Fetter RD, Bock DD. (2018).
A Complete Electron Microscopy Volume of the Brain of Adult Drosophila melanogaster.
Cell 174:730-743.

Kohl, J., Ostrovsky, A.D., Frechter, S. and Jefferis, G.S.X.E. (2013)
A bidirectional circuit switch reroutes pheromone signals in male and female brains.
Cell 155:1610-1623.