{
  "abstract": "In most animals, a small number of descending neurons (DNs) connect the brain to circuits and motor neurons (MNs) in the nerve cord. To understand how brain signals generate behavior, it is critical to understand the organization of the neural pathways linking DNs to MNs. In companion papers, we introduced a densely reconstructed connectome of the Drosophila Male Adult Nerve Cord (MANC; Takemura et al., 2024), including cell types and developmental lineages (Marin et al., 2024), which provides complete connectivity of the ventral nerve cord (VNC) at synaptic resolution. Here, we present a first look at the organization of the networks connecting DNs to MNs. We first proofread and curated all DNs and MNs, then systematically matched their morphology to light microscopy data. We report both broad organizational patterns of the entire network and fine-scale analysis of selected circuits of interest. We discover that direct DN-MN connections are infrequent and identify neuron communities putatively linked to control of different motor systems, including walking, flight steering and power generation, and coordinated action of wings and legs. Our analyses generate hypotheses for future functional experiments and empowers others to investigate these and other circuits of the VNC in richer mechanistic detail.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States",
    "Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States",
    "Drosophila Connectomics Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom",
    "Neurobiology Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom",
    "Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 16,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Han SJ Cheong",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5233-3438"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Katharina Eichler",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7833-8621"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Tomke Stürner",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4054-0784"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Samuel K Asinof",
      "orcid": "0009-0000-8793-4671"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Andrew S Champion",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6883-0081"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Elizabeth C Marin",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6333-0072"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Tess B Oram"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Marissa Sumathipala"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Lalanti Venkatasubramanian"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Shigehiro Namiki",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1559-799X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Igor Siwanowicz",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5819-1530"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Marta Costa",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5948-3092"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Stuart Berg",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0766-0488"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Janelia FlyEM Project Team"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Gregory SXE Jefferis",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0587-9355"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Gwyneth M Card",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7679-3639"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9fe0mf9fnyqxk.bib",
  "cited_by": 54,
  "doi": "10.7554/elife.96084",
  "fulltext_url": "https://elifesciences.org/articles/96084",
  "id": "9fe0mf9fnyqxk",
  "issns": [
    "2050-084X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://elifesciences.org/articles/96084",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "elife",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2804|Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W4379618262",
  "pdf_url": "https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/96084/elife-96084-v2.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-07-20",
  "publisher": "eLife Sciences Publications",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9fe0mf9fnyqxk.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:20:20Z",
      "native_id": "96084",
      "source": "elife",
      "url": "https://elifesciences.org/articles/96084"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "elife:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Organization of circuits linking descending input to motor output in the Drosophila Male Adult Nerve Cord connectome",
  "title_text": "Organization of circuits linking descending input to motor output in the Drosophila Male Adult Nerve Cord connectome",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T12:20:56Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9fe0mf9fnyqxk",
  "venue": "eLife",
  "versions": []
}