Neural mechanisms of rhythmic motor control in Drosophila

All animal locomotion is rhythmic, whether it is achieved through undulatory movement of the whole body or the coordination of articulated limbs. Neurobiologists have long studied locomotor circuits that produce rhythmic activity with non-rhythmic input, also called central pattern generators (CPGs). However, the cellular and microcircuit implementation of a CPG for walking has not been described for any limbed animal. New comprehensive connectomes of the fruit fly ventral nerve cord (VNC) provide an opportunity to study rhythmogenic walking circuits at a synaptic scale. We use a data-driven network modeling approach to identify and characterize a putative CPG that controls walking in Drosophila.