The Developmental Plasticity of Fruit Fly Vision

In this dissertation we explore the morphological and neural plasticity underlying vision at different scales—within and between species of Drosophila—to elucidate the role of eye development in the evolution of vision. In chapter 2, we offer a tool to accelerate large-scale research into compound eye morphology, and validate it on the eyes of several insect orders and image media. Then, in chapter 3 we demonstrate the developmental plasticity of eye morphology and neural summation in fruit flies, finding an interesting interplay between the two systems. In chapter 4, we elucidate the role of visual plasticity and neural summation in the evolution of vision by comparing vinegar and desert flies. Finally, in chapter 5, we show how future and ongoing work is diving into the mechanisms underlying this visual plasticity by measuring the effect of early temperature, exploring regional differences across the visual field, and detecting light-induced circadian activity. 

Co-major Professors: Dr. Robert Lickliter and 
Dr. Jamie Theobald