eLife · 30 October 2026 · From issue 60
Glutamate receptor composition at Drosophila neuromuscular junctions depends on developmental stage and muscle identity
Adult and baby fruit flies use different nerve-signal sensors at their muscle junctions.
Anne Sustar, Chengjie Qiu et al.
Fruit flies use small sensors on their muscles to pick up signals from nerves. Baby flies and adult flies turn out to use different sets of these sensors at the junction where nerve meets muscle. Even muscles right next to each other in an adult leg use different sensor combinations. A separate sensor for the same signal chemical shows up only in adult muscle, not in young muscle.
Shows that fly muscles are not all wired the same way, challenging a common lab assumption.
Fruit flies only, lab study, no human or other-species data.
Integrity screen: passed (3 checks) Checked 1 November 2026. Retraction record: none. DOI resolves at doi.org. Metadata record found (eLife). Read the source
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