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Hello.
My name is Hugo Bellen.
I'm a member of
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Then I'm currently at
Baylor College of Medicine.
I'll be talking about "The Development
of the Peripheral Nervous System in
the Fruit Fly Drosophila".
And the reason why we
studied the development
of the peripheral nervous system in
the fruit flies is that it has been
an excellent model system to identify
new components that are required for
the formation of neurons and
further development of the nervous system.
Before I describe the development
of the nervous system,
I will introduce you to
the different senses and
how the fruit fly copes
with the different senses.
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There are five peripheral senses, sight,
smell, taste, hearing, and proprioception.
Sight is provided by the eyes and
is not the topic of this lecture today.
Smell is provided by olfactory
receptors in the antenna or
the nose in vertebrates and in humans.
Taste is provided by taste receptors
in the labia of the fruit fly and
the legs, typically the tongue in humans.
Hearing is provided by the johnston organ
in the antenna or the ear in humans.
And proprioception is provided
by external sensory organs that
essentially cover the entire body.
So this is also called
sometimes the sixth sense,
it's the sense by which we sense where
all our different body parts are,
that is, or muscles or
limbs or fingers or toes, etc.
Every organism that moves
needs proprioception and
needs information about where
its different body parts are and
this is provided by
external sensory organs.
Here I'll briefly introduce you to
hearing in the johnston organs and
proprioceptive devices in
the skin of the fruit fly or
in the cuticle of the fruit fly.
