Dataset and software to analyze and simulate neuronal morphogenesis in Drosophila class IV da neurons

The highly ramified arbors of neuronal dendrites provide the substrate for
the high connectivity and computational power of the brain. Altered
dendritic morphology is associated with neuronal diseases. Many molecules
have been shown to play crucial roles in shaping and maintaining dendrite
morphology. Yet, the underlying principles by which molecular interactions
generate branched morphologies are not understood. To elucidate these
principles, we visualized the growth of dendrites throughout larval
development of Drosophila sensory neurons and discovered that the tips of
dendrites undergo dynamic instability, transitioning rapidly and
stochastically between growing, shrinking, and paused states. By
incorporating these measured dynamics into a novel, agent-based
computational model, we showed that the complex and highly variable
dendritic morphologies of these cells are a consequence of the stochastic
dynamics of their dendrite tips. These principles may generalize to
branching of other neuronal cell-types, as well as to branching at the
subcellular and tissue levels.