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Embryonic Origins Of A Motor System: Motor Dendrites Form A Myotopic Map In Drosophila, Matthias Landgraf, Victoria Jeffrey, Miki Fujioka, James B. Jaynes, Michael Bate

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

The organisational principles of locomotor networks are less well understood than those of many sensory systems, where in-growing axon terminals form a central map of peripheral characteristics. Using the neuromuscular system of the Drosophila embryo as a model and retrograde tracing and genetic methods, we have uncovered principles underlying the organisation of the motor system. We find that dendritic arbors of motor neurons, rather than their cell bodies, are partitioned into domains to form a myotopic map, which represents centrally the distribution of body wall muscles peripherally. While muscles are segmental, the myotopic map is parasegmental in organisation. It forms …