Locomotion relies on neural networks called central pattern generators (CPGs) that generate periodic motor commands for rhythmic movements1. We have identified a spinal input to the CPG that drives spontaneous locomotion using a combination of intersectional gene expression and optogenetics2 in zebrafish larvae. The photo-stimulation of one specific cell type was sufficient to induce a symmetrical tail beating sequence that mimics spontaneous slow forward swimming. This neuron is the Kolmer-Agduhr (KA) cell3, which extends cilia into the central cerebrospinal fluid containing canal of the spinal cord and has an ipsilateral ascending axon that terminates in a series of consecutive segments4. Genetically silencing KA cells reduced the frequency of spontaneous free swimming, indicating that KA cell activity provides necessary tone for spontaneous forward swimming. KA cells have been known for over 75 years, but their function has been mysterious. Our results reveal that during early development in low vertebrates these cells provide a positive drive to the spinal CPG for spontaneous locomotion.

One of the limitations on imaging fluorescent proteins within living cells is that they are usually present in small numbers and need to be detected over a large background. We have developed the means to isolate specific fluorescence signals from background by using lock-in detection of the modulated fluorescence of a class of optical probe termed ''optical switches.'' This optical lock-in detection (OLID) approach involves modulating the fluorescence emission of the probe through deterministic, optical control of its fluorescent and nonfluorescent states, and subsequently applying a lock-in detection method to isolate the modulated signal of interest from nonmodulated background signals. Cross-correlation analysis provides a measure of correlation between the total fluorescence emission within single pixels of an image detected over several cycles of optical switching and a reference waveform detected within the same image over the same switching cycles. This approach to imaging provides a means to selectively detect the emission from optical switch probes among a larger population of conventional fluorescent probes and is compatible with conventional microscopes. OLID using nitrospirobenzopyran-based probes and the genetically encoded Dronpa fluorescent protein are shown to generate high-contrast images of specific structures and proteins in labeled cells in cultured and explanted neurons and in live Xenopus embryos and zebrafish larvae.high-contrast ͉ optical switches ͉ "ac"-imaging ͉ fluorescence microscopy U nderstanding the molecular basis for the regulation of complex biological processes such as cell motility and proliferation requires analysis of the distribution and dynamics of protein interactions within living cells in culture and in intact tissue (1). Tremendous advances have been made toward the development of new optical probes (2, 3) and imaging techniques that are capable of detecting proteins down to the level of single molecules (4-11). However, in living cells, such detection is compromised by autofluorescence, which can amount to several thousand equivalents of fluorescein per cell (12), as well as by light scattering (13). A major challenge in live-cell imaging, therefore, is to develop classes of probes and imaging techniques that are capable of resolving fluorescence signals from synthetic probes or genetically encoded fluorescent proteins in living cells and tissue against large background signals that may vary in time and space.A simple and highly-effective approach for isolating a specific fluorescence signal from a large background is to reversibly modulate the fluorescence intensity of only a probe of interest that is bound to a specific protein by applying a uniform, rapid and specific perturbation (e.g., a change in temperature (14), pressure (15), or voltage (16) to which that probe is uniquely attuned. The modulated fluorescence can be isolated from other steady sources of background fluorescence by lock-in detection, making it possible to specifically extract the probe fluoresc...

SUMMARY Background Developing neural networks display spontaneous and correlated rhythmic bursts of action potentials that are essential for circuit refinement. In the spinal cord, it is poorly understood how correlated activity is acquired and how its emergence relates to the formation of the spinal central pattern generator (CPG), the circuit that mediates rhythmic behaviors like walking and swimming. It is also unknown whether early, uncorrelated activity is necessary for the formation of the coordinated CPG. Results Time-lapse imaging in the intact zebrafish embryo with the genetically-encoded calcium indicator GCaMP3 revealed a rapid transition from slow, sporadic activity to fast, ipsilaterally correlated, and contralaterally anti-correlated activity, characteristic of the spinal CPG. Ipsilateral correlations were acquired through the coalescence of local microcircuits. Brief optical manipulation of activity with the light-driven pump Halorhodopsin revealed that the transition to correlated activity was associated with a strengthening of ipsilateral connections, likely mediated by gap junctions. Contralateral antagonism increased in strength at the same time. The transition to coordinated activity was disrupted by long-term optical inhibition of sporadic activity in motoneurons and VeLD interneurons, and resulted in more neurons exhibiting uncoordinated activity patterns at later time points. Conclusions These findings show that the CPG in the zebrafish spinal cord emerges directly from a sporadically active network as functional connectivity strengthens between local and then more distal neurons. These results also reveal that early, sporadic activity in a subset of ventral spinal neurons is required for the integration of maturing neurons into the coordinated CPG network.