In vivo autofluorescence lifetime imaging of spatial metabolic heterogeneities and learning-induced changes in the Drosophila mushroom body
Abstract
Neuronal energy regulation is increasingly recognized as a critical factor underlying brain functions and their pathological alterations, yet the metabolic dynamics that accompany cognitive processes remain poorly understood. As a label-free and minimally invasive technique, fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) of coenzymes NADH and NADPH (collectively referred to as NAD(P)H) offers the possibility to resolve cellular metabolic profiles with high spatial precision. However, NAD(P)H FLIM’s capacity to detect subtle variations in neuronal metabolism has not been demonstrated. In this study, we applied NAD(P)H FLIM to map the metabolic profiles of Drosophila neurons in vivo across multiple scales, focusing on the primary centers for associative memory: the mushroom bodies (MBs). At a broad scale, we obtained an overview of the metabolic signatures of the main brain tissue and identified a marked difference between neuropil and cortex areas. At a finer scale, our findings revealed notable heterogeneity in the basal metabolic profiles of distinct MB neuron subtypes. Measurements performed after associative olfactory learning also uncovered a low-magnitude subtype-specific metabolic shift associated with memory formation, suggesting the utility of NAD(P)H FLIM in detecting physiology-driven changes linked to brain function. These results establish a promising framework for studying the spatial heterogeneities and the dynamics of cerebral energy metabolism in vivo
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BibTeX
@article{roussel2026vivo,
title = {{In vivo autofluorescence lifetime imaging of spatial metabolic heterogeneities and learning-induced changes in the Drosophila mushroom body}},
author = {Philémon Roussel and Mingyi Zhou and Chiara Stringari and Thomas Preat and Pierre-Yves Plaçais and Auguste Genovesio},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.7554/elife.106040},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05828681v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - In vivo autofluorescence lifetime imaging of spatial metabolic heterogeneities and learning-induced changes in the Drosophila mushroom body
AU - Philémon Roussel
AU - Mingyi Zhou
AU - Chiara Stringari
AU - Thomas Preat
AU - Pierre-Yves Plaçais
AU - Auguste Genovesio
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - eLife
DO - 10.7554/elife.106040
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05828681v1
AB - Neuronal energy regulation is increasingly recognized as a critical factor underlying brain functions and their pathological alterations, yet the metabolic dynamics that accompany cognitive processes remain poorly understood. As a label-free and minimally invasive technique, fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) of coenzymes NADH and NADPH (collectively referred to as NAD(P)H) offers the possibility to resolve cellular metabolic profiles with high spatial precision. However, NAD(P)H FLIM’s capacity to detect subtle variations in neuronal metabolism has not been demonstrated. In this study, we applied NAD(P)H FLIM to map the metabolic profiles of Drosophila neurons in vivo across multiple scales, focusing on the primary centers for associative memory: the mushroom bodies (MBs). At a broad scale, we obtained an overview of the metabolic signatures of the main brain tissue and identified a marked difference between neuropil and cortex areas. At a finer scale, our findings revealed notable heterogeneity in the basal metabolic profiles of distinct MB neuron subtypes. Measurements performed after associative olfactory learning also uncovered a low-magnitude subtype-specific metabolic shift associated with memory formation, suggesting the utility of NAD(P)H FLIM in detecting physiology-driven changes linked to brain function. These results establish a promising framework for studying the spatial heterogeneities and the dynamics of cerebral energy metabolism in vivo
SN - 2050-084X
ER -