NYU/CNS : Faculty : Associates of CNS : Claude Desplan

Claude Desplan Our laboratory addresses mechanistic questions of development. We are studying two processes in Drosophila, early embryonic development and formation of the color vision system. These systems represent paradigms for understanding how pattern formation is genetically controlled. We study is the determination of the retinal mosaic and the neural network that underlie color vision in flies. Color vision is achieved through the comparison in the brain of inputs coming from photoreceptors containing photopigments (rhodopsins) with different wavelength specificity. Different rhodopsins are expressed in stochastic but mutually exclusive patterns in the compound eye of Drosophila as in cones of the vertebrate retina. This implies that there is a process for choosing a given rhodopsin gene and to transcriptionally repress all others. From this choice, another mechanism must then inform the brain of its connection to a photoreceptor with a specific color sensitivity. We have used molecular and genetic approaches to identify most of the functions involved in the establishment of the retinal mosaic and the signaling pathways responsible for the elaboration of this sensory system. We are also imaging the target neurons of photoreceptors in the optic lobes and we are manipulating (ablation or silencing) these neurons to obtain a functional map the neural network underlying color vision. We have developed a color behavior assay to assay how changes in the retina or optic lobe neurons affect the visual process. We hope to understand how color vision has evolved and how brain processing allows the fly to detect its color environment.

E-mail: claude.desplan@nyu.edu

Selected Publications

Wimmer, E. A., Carleton, A., Harjes, P., Turner, T., & Desplan, C. (2000). Bicoid-independent formation of thoracic segments in Drosophila. Science, 287(5462), 2476-2479. (Abstract)

Mollereau, B., Dominguez, M., Webel, R., Colley, N. J., Keung, B., de Celis, J. F., & Desplan, C. (2001). Two-step process for photoreceptor formation in Drosophila. Nature, 412(6850), 911-913. (Abstract)

Cook, T., Pichaud, F., Sonneville, R., Papatsenko, D., & Desplan, C. (2003). Distinction between color photoreceptor cell fates is controlled by Prospero in Drosophila. Dev Cell, 4(6), 853-864. (Abstract)

Tahayato, A., Sonneville, R., Pichaud, F., Wernet, M. F., Papatsenko, D., Beaufils, P., Cook, T., & Desplan, C. (2003). Otd/Crx, a dual regulator for the specification of ommatidia subtypes in the Drosophila retina. Dev Cell, 5(3), 391-402. (Abstract)

Wernet, M. F., Labhart, T., Baumann, F., Mazzoni, E. O., Pichaud, F., & Desplan, C. (2003). Homothorax switches function of Drosophila photoreceptors from color to polarized light sensors. Cell, 115(3), 267-279. (Abstract)

Mazzoni, E. O., Desplan, C., & Blau, J. (2005). Circadian pacemaker neurons transmit and modulate visual information to control a rapid behavioral response. Neuron, 45(2), 293-300. (Abstract)

Mikeladze-Dvali, T., Wernet, M. F., Pistillo, D., Mazzoni, E. O., Teleman, A. A., Chen, Y. W., Cohen, S., & Desplan, C. (2005). The growth regulators warts/lats and melted interact in a bistable loop to specify opposite fates in Drosophila R8 photoreceptors. Cell, 122(5), 775-787. Featured in Dev Cell, CB & Nature Rev. Neuro. (Abstract)

Lynch, J. A., Brent, A. E., Leaf, D. S., Pultz, M. A., & Desplan, C. (2006). Localized maternal orthodenticle patterns anterior and posterior in the long germ wasp Nasonia. Nature, 439(7077), 728-732. Featured in BioEsssays and Faculty of 1000. (Abstract)

Wernet, M. F., Mazzoni, E. O., Celik, A., Duncan, D. M., Duncan, I., & Desplan, C. (2006). Stochastic spineless expression creates the retinal mosaic for colour vision. Nature, 440(7081), 174-180. Featured in Current Biol. & Faculty of 1000. (Abstract)