PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Adam D. Hines
AU  - Bruno van Swinderen
TI  - Tracking Single Molecule Dynamics in the Adult <em>Drosophila</em> Brain
AID  - 10.1523/ENEURO.0057-21.2021
DP  - 2021 May 01
TA  - eneuro
PG  - ENEURO.0057-21.2021
VI  - 8
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/8/3/ENEURO.0057-21.2021.short
4100  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/8/3/ENEURO.0057-21.2021.full
SO  - eNeuro2021 May 01; 8
AB  - Super-resolution microscopy provides valuable insight for understanding the nanoscale organization within living tissue, although this method is typically restricted to cultured or dissociated cells. Here, we develop a method to track the mobility of individual proteins in ex vivo adult Drosophila melanogaster brains, focusing on a key component of the presynaptic release machinery, syntaxin1A (Sx1a). We show that individual Sx1a dynamics can be reliably tracked within neurons in the whole fly brain, and that the mobility of Sx1a molecules increases following conditional neural stimulation. We then apply this preparation to the problem of general anesthesia, to address how different anesthetics might affect single molecule dynamics in intact brain synapses. We find that propofol, etomidate, and isoflurane significantly impair Sx1a mobility, while ketamine and sevoflurane have little effect. Resolving single molecule dynamics in intact fly brains provides a novel approach to link localized molecular effects with systems-level phenomena such as general anesthesia.