title: Recovery of locomotion after injury in Drosophila melanogaster depends on proprioception.
abstract: Locomotion is necessary for survival in most animal species. However, injuries to the appendages mediating locomotion are common. We assess the recovery of walking in Drosophila melanogaster following leg amputation. Whereas flies pre-amputation explore open arenas in a symmetric fashion on average, foreleg amputation induces a strong turning bias away from the side of the amputation. However, we find that unbiased walking behavior returns over time in wild-type flies, while recovery is significantly impaired in proprioceptive mutants. To identify the biomechanical basis of this locomotor impairment and recovery, we then examine individual leg motion (gait) at a fine scale. A minimal mathematical model that links neurodynamics to body mechanics during walking shows that redistributing leg forces between the right and left side enables the observed recovery. Altogether, our study suggests that proprioceptive input from the intact limbs plays a crucial role in the behavioral plasticity associated with locomotor recovery after injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isakov
authors.affiliation: Rowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Akshitha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
authors.affiliation: Rowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua K S
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Edward S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA lm@seas.harvard.edu debivort@oeb.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mahadevan
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Rowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA lm@seas.harvard.edu debivort@oeb.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Bivort
mesh_terms: D000671:Amputation, Surgical; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002138:Calibration; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D005121:Extremities / Q000502:physiology; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008390:Markov Chains; D008954:Models, Biological; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Gaits; Leg injury; Locomotion; Plasticity; Proprioception; Recovery