Modulation of a critical period for motor development in Drosophila by BK potassium channels.

Critical periods are windows of heightened plasticity occurring during neurodevelopment. Alterations in neural activity during these periods can cause long-lasting changes in the structure, connectivity, and intrinsic excitability of neurons, which may contribute to the pathology of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, endogenous regulators of critical periods remain poorly defined.

Fully Automated Leg Tracking in Freely Moving Insects using Feature Learning Leg Segmentation and Tracking (FLLIT).

The Drosophila model has been invaluable for the study of neurological function and for understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie neurodegeneration. While fly techniques for the manipulation and study of neuronal subsets have grown increasingly sophisticated, the richness of the resultant behavioral phenotypes has not been captured at a similar detail. To be able to study subtle fly leg movements for comparison amongst mutants requires the ability to automatically measure and quantify high-speed and rapid leg movements.

Bantam regulates the axonal geometry of Drosophila larval brain by modulating actin regulator enabled.

During development, axonogenesis, an integral part of neurogenesis, is based on well-concerted events comprising generation, rearrangement, migration, elongation, and adhesion of neurons. Actin, specifically the crosstalk between the guardians of actin polymerization, like enabled, chickadee, capping protein plays an essential role in crafting several events of axonogenesis. Recent evidences reflect multifaceted role of microRNA during axonogenesis.

Study of bantam miRNA expression in brain tumour resulted due to loss of polarity modules in Drosophila melanogaster.

Disturbance of delicate concordance between stem cell proliferation, specification and differentiation during brain development leads to several neural disorders including tumours. Accumulating evidences have demonstrated involvement of short noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) in governing several biological as well as pathological processes, including tumourigenesis across various species. Drosophila bantam miRNA, known to regulate critical physiological functions is reported to have elevated expression in ovarian tumour.

Dicer-1 regulates proliferative potential of Drosophila larval neural stem cells through bantam miRNA based down-regulation of the G1/S inhibitor Dacapo.

The present work elucidates the role of miRNA in cell cycle regulation during brain development in Drosophila. Here we report that lineage specific depletion of dicer-1, a classically acknowledged miRNA biogenesis protein in neuroblasts leads to a reduction in their numbers and size in the third instar larval central brain. These brains also showed lower number of mitotically active cells and when homozygous mitotic clones were generated in an otherwise heterozygous dicer-1 mutant background via MARCM technique, they showed reduced number of progeny cells in individual clones, substantiating the adverse effect of the loss of dicer-1 on the proliferative potential of neuroblasts.

Polariton Bose-Einstein condensate at room temperature in an Al(Ga)N nanowire-dielectric microcavity with a spatial potential trap.

A spatial potential trap is formed in a 6.0-μm Al(Ga)N nanowire by varying the Al composition along its length during epitaxial growth. The polariton emission characteristics of a dielectric microcavity with the single nanowire embedded in-plane have been studied at room temperature.

Spin relaxation in InGaN quantum disks in GaN nanowires.

The spin relaxation time of photoinduced conduction electrons has been measured in InGaN quantum disks in GaN nanowires as a function of temperature and In composition in the disks. The relaxation times are of the order of ∼100 ps at 300 K and are weakly dependent on temperature. Theoretical considerations show that the Elliott-Yafet scattering mechanism is essentially absent in these materials and the results are interpreted in terms of the D'yakonov-Perel' relaxation mechanism in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling of the wurtzite structure.

Catalyst-free InGaN/GaN nanowire light emitting diodes grown on (001) silicon by molecular beam epitaxy.

Catalyst-free growth of (In)GaN nanowires on (001) silicon substrate by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy is demonstrated. The nanowires with diameter ranging from 10 to 50 nm have a density of 1-2 x 10(11) cm(-2). P- and n-type doping of the nanowires is achieved with Mg and Si dopant species, respectively.