Acute genetic manipulation of neuronal activity for the functional dissection of neural circuits-a dream come true for the pioneers of behavioral genetics.

This review summarizes technical development of the functional manipulation of specific neural circuits through genetic techniques in Drosophila. Long after pioneers' efforts for the genetic dissection of behavior using this organism as a model, analyses with acute activation of specific neural circuits have finally become feasible using transgenic Drosophila that expresses light-, heat-, or cold-activatable cation channels by xxx/upstream activation sequence (Gal4/UAS)-based induction system. This methodology opened a new avenue to dissect functions of neural circuits to make dreams of the pioneers into reality.