Title: Characterizing the Development of Drosophila Olfactory Neurons by Single-Cell RNA-seq

Speaker: Dr. Hongjie Li, Stanford Neurosciences Institute, Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar

Time: 13:00-14:00, April 22, 2019

Location: Room 411, Life Science Building

Abstract:

The brain function relies on precise neuronal circuit assembly during development. However, our current understanding of mechanisms that establish neuronal wiring specificity in complex neural systems is far from complete. Drosophila olfactory system consists of 50 classes of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) and 50 classes of projection neurons (PNs), which form one-to-one connections to process olfactory information, providing a powerful model to study mechanisms for wiring specificity.

We have recently, for the first time, applied single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNAseq) to Drosophila neurons and glia. In this talk, I will first present the application of scRNAseq on classifying Drosophila olfactory neurons, and discuss several insights we have gained from such analysis. Then, I will discuss our recent unpublished work on how scRNAseq helped us to identify molecular mechanisms that coordinate receptor expression and wiring specificity in olfactory receptor neurons.