Acute Genetic Manipulation of Neuronal Activity for the Functional Dissection of Neural Circuits — A Dream Come True for the Pioneers of Behavioral Genetics

This review summarizes technical development of the functional manipulation of specific neural circuits through genetic techniques in Drosophila. Long after pioneers ’ efforts for the genetic dissection of behavior using this organism as a model, analyses with acute activation of specific neural circuits have finally become feasible using transgenic Drosophila that expresses light-, heat-, or cold-activatable cation channels by xxx/upstream activation sequence (Gal4/UAS)-based induction system. This methodology opened a new avenue to dissect functions of neural circuits to make dreams of the pioneers into reality.