PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lucia L. Prieto-Godino
AU  - Ana F. Silbering
AU  - Mohammed A. Khallaf
AU  - Steeve Cruchet
AU  - Karolina Bojkowska
AU  - Sylvain Pradervand
AU  - Bill S. Hansson
AU  - Markus Knaden
AU  - Richard Benton
TI  - Functional integration of “undead” neurons in the olfactory system
AID  - 10.1101/623488
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 623488
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/14/623488.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/14/623488.full
AB  - Programmed cell death (PCD) is widespread during neurodevelopment, typically countering the surpluses of neuronal production. We examined, in the Drosophila olfactory system, the potential of cells fated to die to contribute to circuit evolution. Inhibition of PCD is sufficient to generate many new cells that express neural markers and exhibit odor-evoked activity. These “undead” neurons express a subset of olfactory receptors, enriched for recent receptor duplicates, and including those normally found in other chemosensory organs and life-stages. Moreover, undead neuron axons integrate into the olfactory circuitry in the brain. Comparison of homologous olfactory lineages across drosophilids reveals natural examples of fate changes from death to a functional neuron. These results reveal the remarkable potential of alterations in patterns of PCD to evolve novel neural pathways.