Virtual Fly Brain, or VFB, is an interactive, web-based tool that allows
neurobiologists to explore the detailed
neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defi ...
,
transgene
A transgene is a gene that has been transferred naturally, or by any of a number of genetic engineering techniques, from one organism to another. The introduction of a transgene, in a process known as transgenesis, has the potential to change th ...
expression
Expression may refer to:
Linguistics
* Expression (linguistics), a word, phrase, or sentence
* Fixed expression, a form of words with a specific meaning
* Idiom, a type of fixed expression
* Metaphorical expression, a particular word, phrase, o ...
and associated
phenotype
In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological pr ...
s of the ''
Drosophila melanogaster
''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the " vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with ...
'' brain. Users can browse painted 3D image stacks of the ''Drosophila'' brain, choosing any plane of section they want and clicking on painted regions to find names' definitions, references and synonyms for the chosen region. For each region, they can run queries to find
neuron
A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. ...
s, transgene expression and phenotypes. For each neuron found, users can browse definitions, references and synonyms.
Background
Virtual Fly Brain is a generic web-based application that allows browsing of 3D image stacks and querying of the underlying anatomy and expression database that is maintained by FlyBase. Th
Virtual Fly Brainproject is carried out by researchers at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
and the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
.
Technical details
Virtual Fly Brain uses an
ontological model of ''Drosophila'' anatomy written in
OWL2 and based on the ''Drosophila'' literature. This contains detailed information about both gross neuroanatomy, neuron classes and the relationships between them. Underlying each neuroanatomy query is a query of this ontology in
OWL-DL.
Queries of phenotype and expression utilise the large volume of expression and phenotype data in
FlyBase
FlyBase is an online bioinformatics database and the primary repository of genetic and molecular data for the insect family Drosophilidae. For the most extensively studied species and model organism, ''Drosophila melanogaster'', a wide range of d ...
annotated using the ''Drosophila'' anatomy ontology. Each expression or phenotype query starts with a query of the anatomy ontology for terms appropriate to the chosen region. The output of this query is then used as input for a query of the FlyBase chado database for expression or phenotype annotated using these terms.
Images in the viewer are delivered as a series of tiles covering only the visible area in the browser window. The tiles are produced from a compound 3D Woolz
object representing the overall structure and individual painted domains.
See also
*
Insect brain
The supraesophageal ganglion (also "supraoesophageal ganglion", "arthropod brain" or "microbrain") is the first part of the arthropod, especially insect, central nervous system. It receives and processes information from the first, second, and th ...
*
Drosophila connectome The ''Drosophila'' connectome, once completed, will be a complete list of the roughly 135,000 neurons in the brain of the fruit fly ''Drosophila melanogaster'', along with all of the connections (synapses) between these neurons. As of 2020, the ''D ...
*
Ganglion mother cell
Ganglion mother cells (GMCs) are cells involved in neurogenesis, in non-mammals, that divide only once to give rise to two neurons, or one neuron and one glial cell or two glial cells, and are present only in the central nervous system. They are al ...
*
Pigment dispersing factor
''Pigment dispersing factor'' (''pdf'') is a gene that encodes the protein PDF, which is part of a large family of neuropeptides. Its hormonal product, pigment dispersing hormone (PDH), was named for the diurnal pigment movement effect it has i ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
virtualflybrain.orgFlyBase
Neuroanatomy
Drosophila melanogaster
Invertebrate nervous system