General Biology Seminar

How are visual circuits assembled during development? How do the assembled circuits process color information to guide animal behaviors? Using the Drosophila visual system as a model, we analyzed the assembly and function of the chromatic circuits in the peripheral visual system. In the first part of the seminar, I will describe a "neurotransmitter-receptor" hopping strategy to map the functional chromatic circuits. I will discuss how chromatic signal is transformed through the identified circuits. In the second half of the seminar, I will describe the mechanisms guiding the dendritic development of the second/third-order visual neurons. I will discuss how afferent-derived Activin/TGF-beta regulates the dendritic field size of their postsynaptic partners to ensure appropriate synaptic partnership