Glia are important for clearing the axonal debris following pruning. However, the identity of these glia is not known. Additionally, the extent to which glia play an instructive VS permissive role during pruning is not well understood. We use state-of-the-art genetic tools to label and manipulate both glia and neurons in the same brain to uncover the important genes within glia that affect remodeling in the neurons.
Glia engulf axonal fragments during neuronal remodeling. (A) Scheme of the early stages of mushroom body (MB) neuronal remodeling. At around 4-6 h after puparium formation (APF) glial cells (green) either proliferate around or migrate to the vicinity of the MB axonal lobes (orange). Later, glial processes infiltrate the degenerating lobe and engulf axonal fragments. (B) Using two independent binary expression systems (GAL4 and QF), we are now able to both label and manipulate glia and neurons within the same animals. In these images, axonal debris (red) is clearly engulfed by astrocytes (green) a glial subtype. The engulfed debris is later degraded via the endosome-lysosomal pathway within the glia.