As nervous systems develop, activity perturbations during critical periods can lead to permanently altered network function. However, how activity perturbation influences individual synapses, the network response and the underlying signalling mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we exploit a recently identified critical period in the development of the Drosophila larval locomotor circuit to show that activity perturbation differentially affects individual and identified synaptic pairings. Remarkably, we further show that activity-manipulation of a selective excitatory interneuron is sufficient to fully recapitulate the effects induced by network-wide activity disturbance; indicative that some neurons make a greater contribution to network tuning. We identify nitric oxide (NO)-signalling as a potential mediator of activity-dependent network tuning during the critical period. Significantly, the effect of NO-signalling to network tuning is dictated by the prior activity state of the network. Thus, this study provides mechanistic insight that is currently lacking into how activity during a critical period tunes a developing network.

Activity manipulation of an excitatory interneuron, during an embryonic critical period, alters network tuning of the Drosophila larval locomotor circuit