PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jasper T. Maniates-Selvin
AU  - David Grant Colburn Hildebrand
AU  - Brett J. Graham
AU  - Aaron T. Kuan
AU  - Logan A. Thomas
AU  - Tri Nguyen
AU  - Julia Buhmann
AU  - Anthony W. Azevedo
AU  - Brendan L. Shanny
AU  - Jan Funke
AU  - John C. Tuthill
AU  - Wei-Chung Allen Lee
TI  - Reconstruction of motor control circuits in adult <em>Drosophila</em> using automated transmission electron microscopy
AID  - 10.1101/2020.01.10.902478
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.01.10.902478
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/11/2020.01.10.902478.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/11/2020.01.10.902478.full
AB  - Many animals use coordinated limb movements to interact with and navigate through the environment. To investigate circuit mechanisms underlying locomotor behavior, we used serial-section electron microscopy (EM) to map synaptic connectivity within a neuronal network that controls limb movements. We present a synapse-resolution EM dataset containing the ventral nerve cord (VNC) of an adult female Drosophila melanogaster. To generate this dataset, we developed GridTape, a technology that combines automated serial-section collection with automated high-throughput transmission EM. Using this dataset, we reconstructed 507 motor neurons, including all those that control the legs and wings. We show that a specific class of leg sensory neurons directly synapse onto the largest-caliber motor neuron axons on both sides of the body, representing a unique feedback pathway for fast limb control. We provide open access to the dataset and reconstructions registered to a standard atlas to permit matching of cells between EM and light microscopy data. We also provide GridTape instrumentation designs and software to make large-scale EM data acquisition more accessible and affordable to the scientific community.