3D Gene Expression

Like all brains, insect brains have different structures that accomplish specific tasks. Dr. Josh Dubnau introduces a technique for examining gene expression in the brains of fruit flies.

So this is a 3-dimensional image of a fruit fly brain. Like all brains, insect brains have different structures that accomplish specific tasks. The mushroom bodies are a learning center in the insect brain, they are stained a brown color in this image. In green are the parts of the brain, the neurons within the brain, that express a particular gene, that activate a particular gene. And as you can see from the fact that many of the green neurons coincide with the brown staining of the mushroom bodies, this gene is active in the mushroom bodies.