Juvenile hormone drives the maturation of spontaneous mushroom body neural activity and learned behavior.

Mature behaviors emerge from neural circuits sculpted by genetic programs and spontaneous and evoked neural activity. However, how neural activity is refined to drive maturation of learned behavior remains poorly understood. Here, we explore how transient hormonal signaling coordinates a neural activity state transition and maturation of associative learning. We identify spontaneous, asynchronous activity in a Drosophila learning and memory brain region, the mushroom body. This activity declines significantly over the first week of adulthood. Moreover, this activity is generated cell-autonomously via Cacophony voltage-gated calcium channels in a single cell type, α'/ß' Kenyon cells. Juvenile hormone, a crucial developmental regulator, acts transiently in α'/ß' Kenyon cells during a young adult sensitive period to downregulate spontaneous activity and enable subsequent enhanced learning. Hormone signaling in young animals therefore controls a neural activity state transition and is required for improved associative learning, providing insight into the maturation of circuits and behavior.

Axonal chemokine-like Orion induces astrocyte infiltration and engulfment during mushroom body neuronal remodeling.

The remodeling of neurons is a conserved fundamental mechanism underlying nervous system maturation and function. Astrocytes can clear neuronal debris and they have an active role in neuronal remodeling. Developmental axon pruning of Drosophila memory center neurons occurs via a degenerative process mediated by infiltrating astrocytes. However, how astrocytes are recruited to the axons during brain development is unclear. Using an unbiased screen, we identify the gene requirement of orion, encoding for a chemokine-like protein, in the developing mushroom bodies. Functional analysis shows that Orion is necessary for both axonal pruning and removal of axonal debris. Orion performs its functions extracellularly and bears some features common to chemokines, a family of chemoattractant cytokines. We propose that Orion is a neuronal signal that elicits astrocyte infiltration and astrocyte-driven axonal engulfment required during neuronal remodeling in the Drosophila developing brain.

Htt is a repressor of Abl activity required for APP-induced axonal growth.

Huntington's disease is a progressive autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of a polyglutamine tract at the N-terminus of a large cytoplasmic protein. The Drosophila huntingtin (htt) gene is widely expressed during all developmental stages from embryos to adults. However, Drosophila htt mutant individuals are viable with no obvious developmental defects. We asked if such defects could be detected in htt mutants in a background that had been genetically sensitized to reveal cryptic developmental functions. Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is linked to Alzheimer's disease. Appl is the Drosophila APP ortholog and Appl signaling modulates axon outgrowth in the mushroom bodies (MBs), the learning and memory center in the fly, in part by recruiting Abl tyrosine kinase. Here, we find that htt mutations suppress axon outgrowth defects of αß neurons in Appl mutant MB by derepressing the activity of Abl. We show that Abl is required in MB αß neurons for their axon outgrowth. Importantly, both Abl overexpression and lack of expression produce similar phenotypes in the MBs, indicating the necessity of tightly regulating Abl activity. We find that Htt behaves genetically as a repressor of Abl activity, and consistent with this, in vivo FRET-based measurements reveal a significant increase in Abl kinase activity in the MBs when Htt levels are reduced. Thus, Appl and Htt have essential but opposing roles in MB development, promoting and suppressing Abl kinase activity, respectively, to maintain the appropriate intermediate level necessary for axon growth.

Developmental stage-specific distribution and phosphorylation of Mblk-1, a transcription factor involved in ecdysteroid-signaling in the honey bee brain.

In the honey bee, the mushroom bodies (MBs), a higher-order center in insect brain, comprise interneurons termed Kenyon cells (KCs). We previously reported that Mblk-1, which encodes a transcription factor involved in ecdysteroid-signaling, is expressed preferentially in the large-type KCs (lKCs) in the pupal and adult worker brain and that phosphorylation by the Ras/MAPK pathway enhances the transcriptional activity of Mblk-1 in vitro. In the present study, we performed immunoblotting and immunofluorescence studies using affinity-purified anti-Mblk-1 and anti-phosphorylated Mblk-1 antibodies to analyze the distribution and phosphorylation of Mblk-1 in the brains of pupal and adult workers. Mblk-1 was preferentially expressed in the lKCs in both pupal and adult worker brains. In contrast, some Mblk-1 was phosphorylated almost exclusively in the pupal stages, and phosphorylated Mblk-1 was preferentially expressed in the MB neuroblasts and lKCs in pupal brains. Immunofluorescence studies revealed that both Mblk-1 and phosphorylated Mblk-1 are located in both the cytoplasm and nuclei of the lKC somata in the pupal and adult worker brains. These findings suggest that Mblk-1 plays a role in the lKCs in both pupal and adult stages and that phosphorylated Mblk-1 has pupal stage-specific functions in the MB neuroblasts and lKCs in the honey bee brain.

Developmental axon regrowth and primary neuron sprouting utilize distinct actin elongation factors.

Intrinsic neurite growth potential is a key determinant of neuronal regeneration efficiency following injury. The stereotypical remodeling of Drosophila γ-neurons includes developmental regrowth of pruned axons to form adult specific connections, thereby offering a unique system to uncover growth potential regulators. Motivated by the dynamic expression in remodeling γ-neurons, we focus here on the role of actin elongation factors as potential regulators of developmental axon regrowth. We found that regrowth in vivo requires the actin elongation factors Ena and profilin, but not the formins that are expressed in γ-neurons. In contrast, primary γ-neuron sprouting in vitro requires profilin and the formin DAAM, but not Ena. Furthermore, we demonstrate that DAAM can compensate for the loss of Ena in vivo. Similarly, DAAM mutants express invariably high levels of Ena in vitro. Thus, we show that different linear actin elongation factors function in distinct contexts even within the same cell type and that they can partially compensate for each other.

Visualization of Endogenous Type I TGF-ß Receptor Baboon in the Drosophila Brain.

The transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß) signaling pathway is evolutionarily conserved and widely used in the animal kingdom to regulate diverse developmental processes. Prior studies have shown that Baboon (Babo), a Drosophila type I TGF-ß receptor, plays essential roles in brain development and neural circuit formation. However, the expression pattern for Babo in the developing brain has not been previously reported. We generated a knock-in fly with a human influenza hemagglutinin (HA) tag at the C-terminus of Babo and assessed its localization. Babo::HA was primarily expressed in brain structures enriched with neurites, including the mushroom body lobe and neuropils of the optic lobe, where Babo has been shown to instruct neuronal morphogenesis. Since the babo 3' untranslated region contains a predicted microRNA-34 (miR-34) target sequence, we further tested whether Babo::HA expression was affected by modulating the level of miR-34. We found that Babo was upregulated by mir-34 deletion and downregulated by miR-34 overexpression, confirming that it is indeed a miR-34 target gene. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the baboHA fly permits accurate visualization of endogenous Babo expression during brain development and the construction of functional neural circuits.

Adult neurogenesis in the mushroom bodies of red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum, HERBST) is influenced by the olfactory environment.

Several studies showed adult persisting neurogenesis in insects, including the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, while it is absent in honeybees, carpenter ants, and vinegar flies. In our study, we focus on cell proliferation in the adult mushroom bodies of T. castaneum. We reliably labelled the progenies of the adult persisting mushroom body neuroblasts and determined the proliferation rate under several olfactory conditions within the first week after adult eclosion. We found at least two phases of Kenyon cell proliferation in the early adult beetle. Our results suggest that the generation of Kenyon cells during the first three days after adult eclosion is mainly genetically predetermined and a continuation of the developmental processes (nature), whereas from day four on proliferation seems to be mainly dependent on the odour environment (nurture). Considering that the mushroom bodies are linked to learning and memory, neurogenesis in the mushroom bodies is part of the remodelling of neuronal circuits leading to the adaption to the environment and optimization of behaviour.

Presynaptic developmental plasticity allows robust sparse wiring of the Drosophila mushroom body.

In order to represent complex stimuli, principle neurons of associative learning regions receive combinatorial sensory inputs. Density of combinatorial innervation is theorized to determine the number of distinct stimuli that can be represented and distinguished from one another, with sparse innervation thought to optimize the complexity of representations in networks of limited size. How the convergence of combinatorial inputs to principle neurons of associative brain regions is established during development is unknown. Here, we explore the developmental patterning of sparse olfactory inputs to Kenyon cells of the Drosophila melanogaster mushroom body. By manipulating the ratio between pre- and post-synaptic cells, we find that postsynaptic Kenyon cells set convergence ratio: Kenyon cells produce fixed distributions of dendritic claws while presynaptic processes are plastic. Moreover, we show that sparse odor responses are preserved in mushroom bodies with reduced cellular repertoires, suggesting that developmental specification of convergence ratio allows functional robustness.

Despite having a limited number of senses, animals can perceive a huge range of sensations. One possible explanation is that the brain combines several stimuli to make each specific sensation. The olfactory learning system in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is in a part of the brain called the mushroom body. It allows fruit flies to associate a specific smell with a reward (e.g. food) or a punishment (e.g. poison) and behave accordingly. Two groups of neurons process stimuli from sensory receptors in the mushroom body: olfactory projection neurons carry information from the receptors and pass it on to neurons called Kenyon cells. The system relies on Kenyon cells receiving the combined input of multiple olfactory projection neurons, and therefore information from multiple receptors. The number of inputs each Kenyon cell receives is thought to determine the number of sensations that can be told apart, and thus, the number of signals that can be used for learning. While many mechanisms dictating the complexity of a neuron's shape have been described, the logic behind how two populations of neurons become connected to combine several inputs into a single sensation has not been addressed. A better understanding of how these connections are established during development can help explain how the brain processes information, and the D. melanogaster mushroom body is a good system to address these questions. Elkahlah, Rogow et al. manipulated the number of olfactory projection neurons and Kenyon cells in the mushroom body of fruit flies during development. They found that despite there being a varying number of cells, the number of connections into a post-synaptic cell remained the same. This indicates that the logic behind the combinations of inputs required for a sensation depends on the Kenyon cell, while olfactory projection neurons can adapt during their development to suit these input demands. Thus, if there are fewer Kenyon cells, the olfactory projection neurons will each provide connections to fewer cells to compensate, and if there are fewer olfactory projection neurons, each of them will input into more Kenyon cells. To show that the developing mushroom body could indeed adapt to different numbers of olfactory projection neurons and Kenyon cells, the modified flies were tested for olfactory perception: their responses to odor were largely normal. These results underline the robustness of neuronal circuits. During development, the mushroom body can compensate for missing or extra neurons by modifying the numbers of connections between two groups of neurons, thus allowing the olfactory system to work normally. This robustness may also predispose the system to evolutionary change, since it allows the system to continue working as it changes. These findings are relevant to any area of the brain where neurons rely on combined input from many sources.

Modulators of hormonal response regulate temporal fate specification in the Drosophila brain.

Neuronal diversity is at the core of the complex processing operated by the nervous system supporting fundamental functions such as sensory perception, motor control or memory formation. A small number of progenitors guarantee the production of this neuronal diversity, with each progenitor giving origin to different neuronal types over time. How a progenitor sequentially produces neurons of different fates and the impact of extrinsic signals conveying information about developmental progress or environmental conditions on this process represent key, but elusive questions. Each of the four progenitors of the Drosophila mushroom body (MB) sequentially gives rise to the MB neuron subtypes. The temporal fate determination pattern of MB neurons can be influenced by extrinsic cues, conveyed by the steroid hormone ecdysone. Here, we show that the activation of Transforming Growth Factor-ß (TGF-ß) signalling via glial-derived Myoglianin regulates the fate transition between the early-born α'ß' and the pioneer αß MB neurons by promoting the expression of the ecdysone receptor B1 isoform (EcR-B1). While TGF-ß signalling is required in MB neuronal progenitors to promote the expression of EcR-B1, ecdysone signalling acts postmitotically to consolidate theα'ß' MB fate. Indeed, we propose that if these signalling cascades are impaired α'ß' neurons lose their fate and convert to pioneer αß. Conversely, an intrinsic signal conducted by the zinc finger transcription factor Krüppel-homolog 1 (Kr-h1) antagonises TGF-ß signalling and acts as negative regulator of the response mediated by ecdysone in promoting α'ß' MB neuron fate consolidation. Taken together, the consolidation of α'ß' MB neuron fate requires the response of progenitors to local signalling to enable postmitotic neurons to sense a systemic signal.

Temporal correlation of elevated PRMT1 gene expression with mushroom body neurogenesis during bumblebee brain development.

Neural development depends on the controlled proliferation and differentiation of neural precursors. In holometabolous insects, these processes must be coordinated during larval and pupal development. Recently, protein arginine methylation has come into focus as an important mechanism of controlling neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation in mammals. Whether a similar mechanism is at work in insects is unknown. We investigated this possibility by determining the expression pattern of three protein arginine methyltransferase mRNAs (PRMT1, 4 and 5) in the developing brain of bumblebees by in situ hybridisation. We detected expression in neural precursors and neurons in functionally important brain areas throughout development. We found markedly higher expression of PRMT1, but not PRMT4 and PRMT5, in regions of mushroom bodies containing dividing cells during pupal stages at the time of active neurogenesis within this brain area. At later stages of development, PRMT1 expression levels were found to be uniform and did not correlate with actively dividing cells. Our study suggests a role for PRMT1 in regulating neural precursor divisions in the mushroom bodies of bumblebees during the period of neurogenesis.

Neuronal Plasticity in the Mushroom-Body Calyx of Bumble Bee Workers During Early Adult Development.

Division of labor among workers is a key feature of social insects and frequently characterized by an age-related transition between tasks, which is accompanied by considerable structural changes in higher brain centers. Bumble bees (Bombus terrestris), in contrast, exhibit a size-related rather than an age-related task allocation, and thus workers may already start foraging at two days of age. We ask how this early behavioral maturation and distinct size variation are represented at the neuronal level and focused our analysis on the mushroom bodies (MBs), brain centers associated with sensory integration, learning and memory. To test for structural neuronal changes related to age, light exposure, and body size, whole-mount brains of age-marked workers were dissected for synapsin immunolabeling. MB calyx volumes, densities, and absolute numbers of olfactory and visual projection neuron (PN) boutons were determined by confocal laser scanning microscopy and three-dimensional image analyses. Dark-reared bumble bee workers showed an early age-related volume increase in olfactory and visual calyx subcompartments together with a decrease in PN-bouton density during the first three days of adult life. A 12:12  h light-dark cycle did not affect structural organization of the MB calyces compared to dark-reared individuals. MB calyx volumes and bouton numbers positively correlated with body size, whereas bouton density was lower in larger workers. We conclude that, in comparison to the closely related honey bees, neuronal maturation in bumble bees is completed at a much earlier stage, suggesting a strong correlation between neuronal maturation time and lifestyle in both species.

Conserved regulation of neurodevelopmental processes and behavior by FoxP in Drosophila.

FOXP proteins form a subfamily of evolutionarily conserved transcription factors involved in the development and functioning of several tissues, including the central nervous system. In humans, mutations in FOXP1 and FOXP2 have been implicated in cognitive deficits including intellectual disability and speech disorders. Drosophila exhibits a single ortholog, called FoxP, but due to a lack of characterized mutants, our understanding of the gene remains poor. Here we show that the dimerization property required for mammalian FOXP function is conserved in Drosophila. In flies, FoxP is enriched in the adult brain, showing strong expression in ~1000 neurons of cholinergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic nature. We generate Drosophila loss-of-function mutants and UAS-FoxP transgenic lines for ectopic expression, and use them to characterize FoxP function in the nervous system. At the cellular level, we demonstrate that Drosophila FoxP is required in larvae for synaptic morphogenesis at axonal terminals of the neuromuscular junction and for dendrite development of dorsal multidendritic sensory neurons. In the developing brain, we find that FoxP plays important roles in α-lobe mushroom body formation. Finally, at a behavioral level, we show that Drosophila FoxP is important for locomotion, habituation learning and social space behavior of adult flies. Our work shows that Drosophila FoxP is important for regulating several neurodevelopmental processes and behaviors that are related to human disease or vertebrate disease model phenotypes. This suggests a high degree of functional conservation with vertebrate FOXP orthologues and established flies as a model system for understanding FOXP related pathologies.

Developmental Deformity Due to scalloped Non-Function in Drosophila Brain Leads to Cognitive Impairment.

Neural identity and wiring specificity are fundamental to brain function. Factors affecting proliferation of the progenitor cells leading to an expansion or regression of specific neuronal clusters are expected to challenge the process of formation of precise synaptic connections with their partners and their further integration to result in proper functional neural circuitry. We have investigated the role of scalloped, a Hippo pathway gene in Drosophila brain development and have shown that its function is critical to regulate proliferation of Mushroom Body Neuroblasts and to limit the neuronal cluster size to normal in the fly brain. Here we investigate the consequent effect of the anatomical phenotype of mutant flies on the brain function, as exemplified by their cognitive performance. We demonstrate that the neural expansion in important neural clusters of the olfactory pathway, caused due to Scalloped inactivation, imparts severe disabilities in learning, short-term memory and long-term memory. Scalloped knockdown in αß Kenyon Cell clusters drastically reduces long-term memory performance. Scalloped deficiency induced neural expansion in antennal lobe and ellipsoid body neurons bring down short-term memory performance significantly. We also demonstrate that the cognitive impairments observed here are not due to a problem in memory formation or execution in the adult, but are due to the developmental deformities caused in the respective class of neurons. Our results strongly indicate that the additional neurons generated by Scalloped inactivation are not synergistically integrated into, but rather perturb the formation of precise functional circuitry.

Drosophila Choline transporter non-canonically regulates pupal eclosion and NMJ integrity through a neuronal subset of mushroom body.

Insect mushroom bodies (MB) have an ensemble of synaptic connections well-studied for their role in experience-dependent learning and several higher cognitive functions. MB requires neurotransmission for an efficient flow of information across synapses with different flexibility to meet the demand of the dynamically changing environment of an insect. Neurotransmitter transporters coordinate appropriate changes for an efficient neurotransmission at the synapse. Till date, there is no transporter reported for any of the previously known neurotransmitters in the intrinsic neurons of MB. In this study, we report a highly enriched expression of Choline Transporter (ChT) in Drosophila MB. We demonstrate that knockdown of ChT in a sub-type of MB neurons called α/ß core (α/ßc) and ϒ neurons leads to eclosion failure, peristaltic defect in larvae, and altered NMJ phenotype. These defects were neither observed on knockdown of proteins of the cholinergic locus in α/ßc and ϒ neurons nor by knockdown of ChT in cholinergic neurons. Thus, our study provides insights into non-canonical roles of ChT in MB.

Amnesiac Is Required in the Adult Mushroom Body for Memory Formation.

It was proposed that the Drosophila amnesiac gene (amn) is required for consolidation of aversive memory in the dorsal paired medial (DPM) neurons, a pair of large neurons that broadly innervate the mushroom bodies (MB), the fly center for olfactory learning and memory (Waddell et al., 2000). Yet, a conditional analysis showed that it was not possible to rescue the memory deficit of amnX8 null mutant flies when amn expression was restored only in the adult (DeZazzo et al., 1999), which led the authors to suggest that amn might be involved in the development of brain structures that normally promote adult olfactory memory. To further investigate temporal and spatial requirements of Amnesiac (AMN) peptide in memory, we used RNA interference in combination with conditional drivers. Experiments were conducted either in both sexes, or in either sexes. Our data show that acute modulation of amn expression in adult DPM neurons does not impact memory. We further show that amn expression is required for normal development of DPM neurons. Detailed enhancer trap analyses suggest that amn transcription unit contains two distinct enhancers, one specific of DPM neurons, and the other specific of α/ß MB neurons. This prompted us to investigate extensively the role of AMN in the adult MB. Together, our results demonstrate that amn is acutely required in adult α/ß MB neurons for middle-term and long-term memory. The data thus establish that amn plays two distinct roles. Its expression is required in DPM neurons for their development, and in adult MB for olfactory memory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The Drosophila amnesiac gene encodes a neuropeptide whose expression was proposed to be required for consolidation of aversive memory in the dorsal paired medial (DPM) neurons, a pair of large neurons that broadly innervate the mushroom bodies (MB), the olfactory memory center. Here, we investigated amnesiac temporal and spatial requirement using conditional tools that allowed us to manipulate its expression in selected neurons. This work leads to a complete reassessment of the role of amnesiac in brain development and memory. We show that amnesiac is required for two distinct processes: for normal development of DPM neurons, and in adult MB for memory.

Developmental Coordination during Olfactory Circuit Remodeling in Drosophila.

Developmental neuronal remodeling is crucial for proper wiring of the adult nervous system. While remodeling of individual neuronal populations has been studied, how neuronal circuits remodel-and whether remodeling of synaptic partners is coordinated-is unknown. We found that the Drosophila anterior paired lateral (APL) neuron undergoes stereotypic remodeling during metamorphosis in a similar time frame as the mushroom body (MB) ɣ-neurons, with whom it forms a functional circuit. By simultaneously manipulating both neuronal populations, we found that cell-autonomous inhibition of ɣ-neuron pruning resulted in the inhibition of APL pruning in a process that is mediated, at least in part, by Ca2+-Calmodulin and neuronal activity dependent interaction. Finally, ectopic unpruned MB ɣ axons display ectopic connections with the APL, as well as with other neurons, at the adult, suggesting that inhibiting remodeling of one neuronal type can affect the functional wiring of the entire micro-circuit.

Steroid Hormone Ecdysone Signaling Specifies Mushroom Body Neuron Sequential Fate via Chinmo.

The functional variety in neuronal composition of an adult brain is established during development. Recent studies proposed that interactions between genetic intrinsic programs and external cues are necessary to generate proper neural diversity [1]. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this developmental process are still poorly understood. Three main subtypes of Drosophila mushroom body (MB) neurons are sequentially generated during development and provide a good example of developmental neural plasticity [2]. Our present data propose that the environmentally controlled steroid hormone ecdysone functions as a regulator of early-born MB neuron fate during larval-pupal transition. We found that the BTB-zinc finger factor Chinmo acts upstream of ecdysone signaling to promote a neuronal fate switch. Indeed, Chinmo regulates the expression of the ecdysone receptor B1 isoform to mediate the production of γ and α'ß' MB neurons. In addition, we provide genetic evidence for a regulatory negative feedback loop driving the α'ß' to αß MB neuron transition in which ecdysone signaling in turn controls microRNA let-7 depression of Chinmo expression. Thus, our results uncover a novel interaction in the MB neural specification pathway for temporal control of neuronal identity by interplay between an extrinsic hormonal signal and an intrinsic transcription factor cascade.

Experience during early adulthood shapes the learning capacities and the number of synaptic boutons in the mushroom bodies of honey bees (Apis mellifera).

The honey bee mushroom bodies (MBs) are brain centers required for specific learning tasks. Here, we show that environmental conditions experienced as young adults affect the maturation of MB neuropil and performance in a MB-dependent learning task. Specifically, olfactory reversal learning was selectively impaired following early exposure to an impoverished environment lacking some of the sensory and social interactions present in the hive. In parallel, the overall number of synaptic boutons increased within the MB olfactory neuropil, whose volume remained unaffected. This suggests that experience of the rich in-hive environment promotes MB maturation and the development of MB-dependent learning capacities.

Eyeless uncouples mushroom body neuroblast proliferation from dietary amino acids in Drosophila.

Cell proliferation is coupled with nutrient availability. If nutrients become limited, proliferation ceases, because growth factor and/or PI3-kinase activity levels become attenuated. Here, we report an exception to this generality within a subpopulation of Drosophila neural stem cells (neuroblasts). We find that most neuroblasts enter and exit cell cycle in a nutrient-dependent manner that is reversible and regulated by PI3-kinase. However, a small subset, the mushroom body neuroblasts, which generate neurons important for memory and learning, divide independent of dietary nutrient conditions and PI3-kinase activity. This nutrient-independent proliferation is regulated by Eyeless, a Pax-6 orthologue, expressed in mushroom body neuroblasts. When Eyeless is knocked down, mushroom body neuroblasts exit cell cycle when nutrients are withdrawn. Conversely, when Eyeless is ectopically expressed, some non-mushroom body neuroblasts divide independent of dietary nutrient conditions. Therefore, Eyeless uncouples MB neuroblast proliferation from nutrient availability, allowing preferential neurogenesis in brain subregions during nutrient poor conditions.

Drosophila microRNA-34 Impairs Axon Pruning of Mushroom Body γ Neurons by Downregulating the Expression of Ecdysone Receptor.

MicroRNA-34 (miR-34) is crucial for preventing chronic large-scale neurite degeneration in the aged brain of Drosophila melanogaster. Here we investigated the role of miR-34 in two other types of large-scale axon degeneration in Drosophila: axotomy-induced axon degeneration in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and developmentally related axon pruning in mushroom body (MB) neurons. Ectopically overexpressed miR-34 did not inhibit axon degeneration in OSNs following axotomy, whereas ectopically overexpressed miR-34 in differentiated MB neurons impaired γ axon pruning. Intriguingly, the miR-34-induced γ axon pruning defect resulted from downregulating the expression of ecdysone receptor B1 (EcR-B1) in differentiated MB γ neurons. Notably, the separate overexpression of EcR-B1 or a transforming growth factor- ß receptor Baboon, whose activation can upregulate the EcR-B1 expression, in MB neurons rescued the miR-34-induced γ axon pruning phenotype. Future investigations of miR-34 targets that regulate the expression of EcR-B1 in MB γ neurons are warranted to elucidate pathways that regulate axon pruning, and to provide insight into mechanisms that control large-scale axon degeneration in the nervous system.