Deciphering the Dendritic Tip Dynamics of Drosophila Class IV Sensory Neuron in Light of a Three-State Model

Individual neurons form highly intricate dendritic structures that receive synaptic input from other neurons or sensory input from the outside world. The precise dendritic morphology is crucial for the proper connectivity and information processing of neural circuits. However, little is known how the dendrites form and grow. We observed that the dendrites of our model system, Drosophila class IV neuron, are highly dynamic. Using an automated tip tracking ‘MATLAB’ software, we characterized the dynamics of the dendritic tips and observed that the tip traces can be segmented into regions of growth (G), shrinkage (S) and paused (P) states. We were able to identify these regions by fitting a piecewise linear function to the traces. We also calculated the transition rates among these different states.Using the above-mentioned dynamic parameters (growth and shrink velocities and transition rates) we will be able to simulate an in-silico model to quantitatively compare whether the morphologies predicted by the model captures the complexities of the morphologies observed during development.