Mushroom body output neurons MBONa1/a2 define an odor intensity channel that regulates behavioral odor discrimination learning in larval Drosophila

The sensitivity of animals to sensory input must be regulated to ensure that signals are detected and also discriminable. However, how circuits regulate the dynamic range of sensitivity to sensory stimuli is not well understood. A given odor is represented in the insect mushroom bodies (MBs) by sparse combinatorial coding by Kenyon cells (KCs), forming an odor quality representation. To address how intensity of sensory stimuli is processed at the level of the MB input region, the calyx, we characterized a set of novel mushroom body output neurons that respond only to high odor concentrations. We show that a pair of MB calyx output neurons, MBONa1/2, are postsynaptic in the MB calyx, where they receive extensive synaptic inputs from KC dendrites, the inhibitory feedback neuron APL, and octopaminergic sVUM1 neurons, but relatively few inputs from projection neurons. This pattern is broadly consistent in the third instar larva as well as in the first instar connectome. MBONa1/a2 presynaptic terminals innervate a region immediately surrounding the MB medial lobe output region in the ipsilateral and contralateral brain hemispheres. By monitoring calcium activity using jRCamP1b, we find that MBONa1/a2 responses are odor-concentration dependent, responding only to ethyl acetate (EA) concentrations higher than a 200-fold dilution, in contrast to MB neurons which are relatively concentration-invariant and respond to EA dilutions as low as 10-4. Optogenetic activation of the calyx-innervating sVUM1 modulatory neurons originating in the SEZ (Subesophageal zone), did not show a detectable effect on MBONa1/a2 odor responses. Optogenetic activation of MBONa1/a2 using CsChrimson impaired odor discrimination learning compared to controls. We propose that MBONa1/a2 form an output channel of the calyx, summing convergent sensory and modulatory input, firing only to high odor concentration, and might affect the activity of downstream MB targets.