Developing neurons connect in specific and stereotyped ways to form the complex circuits
that underlie brain function. By comparison to earlier steps in neural development, progress …

The diversity and dense interconnectivity of cells in the nervous system present a huge
challenge to understanding how brains work. Recent progress toward such understanding …

Deciphering how neuronal diversity is established and maintained requires a detailed
knowledge of neuronal gene expression throughout development. In contrast to mammalian …

Precise patterns of synaptic connections between neurons are encoded in their genetic
programs. Here, we use single-cell RNA sequencing to profile neuronal transcriptomes at …

Many insects use patterns of polarized light in the sky to orient and navigate. Here, we
functionally characterize neural circuitry in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, that …

Random fluctuations are inherent to all complex molecular systems. Although nature has
evolved mechanisms to control stochastic events to achieve the desired biological output …

During development, neural progenitors are temporally patterned to sequentially generate a
variety of neural types. In Drosophila neural progenitors called neuroblasts, temporal …

Variability of synapse numbers and partners despite identical genes reveals the limits of
genetic determinism. Here, we use developmental temperature as a non-genetic …

Color and polarization provide complementary information about the world and are detected
by specialized photoreceptors. However, the downstream neural circuits that process these …

Olfactory receptor (OR) choice represents an example of genetically hardwired stochasticity,
where every olfactory neuron expresses one out of~ 2000 OR alleles in the mouse genome …