Fig 2. alc/AMPKβ is required for maintenance of dendritic branching in Class-IV sensory neurons.

(A) Representative images of Class-IV pickpocket (ppk)>GFP-expressing neurons from abdominal segment A2 in control (top) and alc-RNAi knockdown third-instar larvae. Individual neurons are outlined. Arrowheads point to beaded morphology of dendrites characteristic of reduced alc. (B) Quantification of total dendrite length (mm) in both feeding (n = 10) and wandering (n = 3) third-instar larvae shows a significant decrease in total dendrite length when alc is knocked down in class-IV neurons. (C-E) Quantification shows no significant change in neuronal area (mm²) (D); however, knockdown of alc decreases both dendritic branching order (C) and branch number (E). Quantification performed using the TREES Matlab toolbox. For controls, lines were crossed to w¹¹¹⁸. Error bars indicate SEM. Unpaired T-test was used to determine statistical significance: *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, ****p<0.0001, versus the control.