Honorable Mention: Gap Jumping

Photography by Jana Boerner, Ph.D., assistant research professor and managing core director,
Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute

Escaping a thread is an important reflex that is hardwired in the nervous system of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). A network of just a few neurons relates a sensory stimulus from the eyes and the antenna via the giant fiber interneurons (red) to the jump motoneurons (green and cyan) that send signals to the jump muscles. The signal travels through gap junctions (electrical synapses) from the red to the green neuron. Using a combination of genetic tools and dye fill techniques, the neurons of the circuit can be labeled with different dyes. 3D image stacks of this synapse in the intact nervous system were acquired on a confocal microscope and visualized in 3D as a volume rendering. This synapse is a great model to study molecular mechanisms during synapse formation.