Abhijit Das

Sejal Davla

We are tracing the lineage and development of a set of local interneurons that innervate the antennal lobe of Drosophila.  We use ablation techniques as well as state of the art genetic techniques like “mosaic analysis by repressible cell marker (MARCM)” and “dual expression control MARCM” to decipher lineage relationships. Using these methods, we have shown that adult olfactory local interneurons arise from a single neuroblast (the lateral neuroblast), which divides during larval life.  This neuroblast also gives rise to anatomically diverse types of projection neurons.  The mechanisms by which sibling neurons acquire distinct properties are the focus of our work.

In collaboration with Sonia Sen .

Collaborator: Heinrich Reichert, University of Basel, Switzerland.