Optical imaging of power muscles in Drosophila expressing genetic indicator GCaMP6 and ion channel channelrhodopsin

Calcium was regarded to have only a permissive role to maintain stretch activation during flight. This notion was recently revised owing to the finding that calcium plays an active role in the IFM for modulating power during flight by both in vitro muscle mechanical and in vivo studies. In order to study the significance of Calcium signaling in modulating mechanical power production during flight performance, it is required to artificially activate the asynchronous power muscles. There are various methods to achieve this: (1) by electrophysiological stimulation of power muscles during flight, (2) by expression and release of cage compounds that contain calcium ions during flight, and (3) by expression of exogenous calcium channels in the muscles. In order to achieve this, I opted the last technique to activate the muscles which is far much easier to accomplish as compare to other two ways mentioned above. This study was performed to verify the effective working of the Channelrhodopsin2 in an exogenous environment like the power muscles of Drosophila melanogaster. Although previous studies confirm the effective working of ChR2 in activating various neurons in the fruit fly, no such intense study has been performed on the artificial activation of power muscles in Drosophila. This study would be the first approach to investigate the appropriate working of much complex genetic manipulation in Drosophila. For this, a complex genetic system within the model organism (fruit fly) needs to be generated.