Neuronal circuits are composed of synapses that are either chemical, where signals are transmitted via neurotransmitter release and reception, or electrical, where signals pass directly through intern...

Alt: Majestic Deer with Huge Velvet Antlers. To be clear, this is probably a genetic event or even a breeding decision, but it illustrates the strange ways that antlers can grow. This poor buck, I'm assuming probably a white tailed deer, looks a bit overwhelmed to have a monstrous rack.

What we have learned from absurd evolution

Natural behavior unfolds as coordinated sequences of body movements. This organization suggests that behavior may be built from discrete motor patterns, yet how such arrangements are implemented by neural circuits remains unknown. Here, we combined kinematic analysis, muscle recordings, genetically identified cell types, and closed-loop optogenetic perturbations to examine the organizational logic of natural gap-crossing jumps in mice. Jumping was characterized by a series of precisely defined phases and their associated modular motor patterns. The core phases, propulsion and flight, exhibited distinct signatures of neural control, including unique bursts of coordinated hindlimb muscle activity, differential tuning strategies for jump distance, and active requirements for spinal neural drive. Mapping activity across lumbar interneuron populations and functionally screening candidate cell types for their ability to drive coordinated movement revealed that a population of dorsal excitatory dILB6 neurons can autonomously evoke coordinated multi-joint hindlimb flexion characteristic of the jumping flight phase, across behavioral contexts. These findings provide a specific cellular substrate for the long-standing concept of spinal modular motor control: a flexible, preconfigured motor template that the mammalian CNS can recruit and modulate to meet the demands of natural behavior. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Highlighted Article: Circuit nodes often develop along common axes. We find that a ‘first-come, first-served’ temporal rule underscores the organization of a canonical sensorimotor circuit for gaze st...

Nature - Using two-photon microscopy with a panoramic virtual reality setup, how head direction cells in larval zebrafish integrate visual landmarks and optic flow to track orientation is revealed.

In Drosophila, changing the expression of a small set of cell-surface proteins in just one type of olfactory neuron rewires its connections almost entirely to a new postsynaptic partner neuron type, altering the fly’s odour response and courtship behaviour.

A deep-dive into the many cool (and free) resources available to zebrafish researchers! Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive list but a list of useful

Lau et al. use calcium imaging and statistical modeling to comprehensively survey reticulospinal activity during diverse locomotor behaviors. They find that a small set of functional modules act combi...

Joaquín Navajas Acedo is a Postdoc in the lab of Dr Alexander Schier in Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He is interested in how the nervous system evolves and develops at the singl...

Urban rats are highly adaptable, thriving in the dynamic and often inhospitable conditions of modern cities. Despite substantial mitigation efforts, they remain an enduring presence in urban environme...

A while back, I put together a Bioinformatics Bootcamp for #zebrafish researchers. Here are some of the helpful links & resources that I've come across in my search: Disclaimer: This is not a...

Evolutionary adaptation to diurnal vision in ground squirrels has led to the development of a cone-dominant retina, in stark contrast to the rod-dominant retinas of most mammals. The molecular mechani...

Cell signaling regulates a wide range of biological processes including development, homeostasis, and disease. Accessible technologies to precisely manipulate signaling have important applications in ...