title: Subtype-specific neuronal remodeling during Drosophila metamorphosis.
abstract: During metamorphosis in holometabolous insects, the nervous system undergoes dramatic remodeling as it transitions from its larval to its adult form. Many neurons are generated through post-embryonic neurogenesis to have adult-specific roles, but perhaps more striking is the dramatic remodeling that occurs to transition neurons from functioning in the larval to the adult nervous system. These neurons exhibit a remarkable degree of plasticity during this transition; many subsets undergo programmed cell death, others remodel their axonal and dendritic arbors extensively, whereas others undergo trans-differentiation to alter their terminal differentiation gene expression profiles. Yet other neurons appear to be developmentally frozen in an immature state throughout larval life, to be awakened at metamorphosis by a process we term temporally-tuned differentiation. These multiple forms of remodeling arise from subtype-specific responses to a single metamorphic trigger, ecdysone. Here, we discuss recent progress in Drosophila melanogaster that is shedding light on how subtype-specific programs of neuronal remodeling are generated during metamorphosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Life Sciences Centre, Health Sciences Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada.
authors.forename: Lyubov
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Veverytsa
authors.forename: Douglas W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Allan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D019521:Body Patterning; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000254:growth & development*; D004440:Ecdysone / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D007605:Juvenile Hormones / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D008675:Metamorphosis, Biological; D008954:Models, Biological; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D007605:Juvenile Hormones; D004440:Ecdysone
keywords: differentiation; network remodeling; neuronal identity; neuropeptide; plasticity