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Neurotransmitter classification from electron microscopy images at synaptic sites in Drosophila melanogaster.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

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Authors

Eckstein, Nils 
Bates, Alexander Shakeel 
Champion, Andrew 
Du, Michelle 
Yin, Yijie 

Abstract

High-resolution electron microscopy of nervous systems has enabled the reconstruction of synaptic connectomes. However, we do not know the synaptic sign for each connection (i.e., whether a connection is excitatory or inhibitory), which is implied by the released transmitter. We demonstrate that artificial neural networks can predict transmitter types for presynapses from electron micrographs: a network trained to predict six transmitters (acetylcholine, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, dopamine, octopamine) achieves an accuracy of 87% for individual synapses, 94% for neurons, and 91% for known cell types across a D. melanogaster whole brain. We visualize the ultrastructural features used for prediction, discovering subtle but significant differences between transmitter phenotypes. We also analyze transmitter distributions across the brain and find that neurons that develop together largely express only one fast-acting transmitter (acetylcholine, glutamate, or GABA). We hope that our publicly available predictions act as an accelerant for neuroscientific hypothesis generation for the fly.

Description

Keywords

neuroscience, machine learning, electron microscopy, Drosophila melanogaster, neurotransmitter, explainable AI, Animals, Brain, Connectome, Drosophila melanogaster, gamma-Aminobutyric Acid, Microscopy, Electron, Neural Networks, Computer, Neurons, Neurotransmitter Agents, Synapses

Journal Title

Cell

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0092-8674
1097-4172

Volume Title

187

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
European Research Council (649111)
Wellcome Trust (203261/Z/16/Z)