To address these questions, we are using state-of-the-art methodologies, including single-cell sequencing and advanced genetic tools tailored for Drosophila, while also innovating techniques for genetic manipulation and circuit analysis in non-model insects. By juxtaposing cell composition, neuronal development, and circuit architecture across phylogenetically diverse insects, we aim to uncover the fundamental principles driving the evolution of behavioral diversity. Furthermore, we aim to establish a comprehensive framework for understanding how developmental processes shape behaviors and provide a roadmap for cross-species comparisons within the insect kingdom and beyond.
Along these lines, we have generated single-cell sequencing data from different insects that differ in the environments that they inhabit and, hence, in their behaviors. These data allow us to discover the neuronal cell types that occupy these insect brains. We are using state-of-the-art bioinformatic tools to compare cell type composition, as well as the their developmental mechanisms. We have, so far, established the appropriate pipelines for the anaysis of such data and have discovered potentially new cell types, as well as differences in the underlying neurodevelopmental mechanisms that we are currently confirming by immunostaining.
Finally, by studying a specific neurodevelopmental mechanism, called temporal patterning, we proposed a model whereby temporal patterning predated spatial patterning. We proposed that temporal patterning was potentially already present in single-celled organisms, which can pattern themselves in time (but not in space). As more complex organisms evolved, these temporal sequences could have been used to pattern the more complex tissues in space.
