Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
Volume 219, Issue 11, Pages 1760-1771Publisher
COMPANY BIOLOGISTS LTD
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.133652
Keywords
Locomotion; Plasticity; Proprioception; Recovery; Leg injury; Gaits
Categories
Funding
- Department of Defense [FA9550-11-C-0028]
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship [32 CFR 168a]
- Rowland Institute at Harvard
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Locomotion is necessary for survival in most animal species. However, injuries to the appendages mediating locomotion are common. We assess the recovery of walking in Drosophila melanogaster following leg amputation. Whereas flies pre-amputation explore open arenas in a symmetric fashion on average, foreleg amputation induces a strong turning bias away from the side of the amputation. However, we find that unbiased walking behavior returns over time in wild-type flies, while recovery is significantly impaired in proprioceptive mutants. To identify the biomechanical basis of this locomotor impairment and recovery, we then examine individual leg motion (gait) at a fine scale. A minimal mathematical model that links neurodynamics to body mechanics during walking shows that redistributing leg forces between the right and left side enables the observed recovery. Altogether, our study suggests that proprioceptive input from the intact limbs plays a crucial role in the behavioral plasticity associated with locomotor recovery after injury.
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