Characterization of a Novel Neuronal Injury Model in Drosophila

Neurons must last an entire lifetime, despite facing frequent risk of injury from sources such as traumatic brain injury. The response to soft injury is often modeled in Drosophila by using a laser to sever neurites. However, we recently observed an alternate type of injury, termed explosion injury, which produces immediate, distinct phenotypes such as an increase in cytosolic calcium and microtubule plus-end dynamics. Our goal is to characterize this cellular response to explosive injury.