A high-quality connectome of the complete adult Drosophila central nervous system

Our brain and spinal cord contain a complex network of nerve cells that lets us feel, think and control our bodies. One powerful approach to understand how this works is mapping the connectome: the complete wiring diagram of connections in this network. However these connections are tiny (order 1/10,000th of a millimetre) and can only be revealed by powerful electron microscopes. Only 2 complete connectomes have ever been described, for tiny invertebrates with a few hundred nerve cells - our brain has 100 billion. Using the latest technology, we will obtain the brain and nerve cord connectome of a male Drosophila fly. This will be the first complete connectome for an animal with eyes and legs, whose nervous system shares many features with our own. We will rapidly share this with other scientists and use it to understand how nerve cells integrate sensory information, make decisions and control behaviour.