Genetic dissection of the anterior optic tract of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Electron microscopy shows that in wild-type Drosophila melanogaster the anterior optic tract (AOT) is formed by about 1260 fibers in males and slightly fewer in females. Golgi staining suggests that most AOT fibers connect the lobula with different regions of the central brain. In the sine oculis (so) and small optic lobes (sol) mutants the number of axons is drastically reduced, by 58% in sol and by 35% in so. In the double mutant sol:so there is a loss of up to 83% of the fibers in the AOT. Approximately half of the remaining 220 fibers form a well defined subbundle of very thin axons which is identifiable in wild type as well as in both single mutants. The fibers of this subbundle neither originate nor terminate in the visual ganglia: instead, they connect two different central brain regions. It is concluded that the combined action of the sol and so mutations abolishes more than 90% of the fibers of visual origin or destination in the AOT. Quantitative analysis of electron micrographs shows that the so and sol mutations act independently on nearly exclusive subsets of axons in the AOT.