Confocal quality imaging of afferent neurons from semi-thin sections of Drosophila ganglia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  • N. Mark Tyrer
  • John Maddison
  • David Shepherd
    University of Southampton
  • Darren W. Williams

The aim of this study was to develop protocols for computer imaging of the thoraco-abdominal ganglion of Drosophila from serial semi-thin sections, in which specific neurons were stained and related to neuropilar structures. The central projections of a subset of transgenically labelled sensory neurons were revealed by immunohistochemistry, while Nomarski optics were used to show motor neuron targets in the neuropil. Digital photomicrographs of each section were aligned and the resultant image stacks rendered into three-dimensional (3D) images that can be rotated in real time. The result is a detailed, in-depth visualization of labelled neurons at a resolution comparable with that in confocal reconstructions, which also allows investigation of their relationships with other components of the neuropil.

Keywords

  • Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified/anatomy & histology, Central Nervous System/cytology, Coloring Agents, Drosophila melanogaster/cytology, Ganglia, Invertebrate/cytology, Genes, Reporter/physiology, Green Fluorescent Proteins, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/instrumentation, Indicators and Reagents/metabolism, Luminescent Proteins/metabolism, Microscopy, Confocal/instrumentation, Microtomy/methods, Neurons, Afferent/cytology
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)93-6
Number of pages4
JournalNeuroscience Letters
Volume296
Issue number2-3
Publication statusPublished - 22 Dec 2000
Externally publishedYes
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