Biological Science Faculty Member
Dr. Suguru Takagi
- Office: 353 Biology Unit I
- Office: (850) 645-4775
- Area: Neuroscience
- Mail code: 4370
- E-mail: stakagi@bio.fsu.edu
- Orcid: 0000-0002-6381-7152
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., The University of Tokyo, 2019
Graduate Faculty Status
Research and Professional Interests:
Our lab aims to understand how the neuronal circuits control sensory-guided behavior across animal species. We focus on fruit fly Drosophila, a powerful model organism suitable to study fundamental principles of neural structure, function, and behavior. We have been working on olfactory circuits and behavior by using a comparative approach. Specifically, we have developed neurogenetic tools in Drosophila sechellia – a closely-related species to the long-standing model organism Drosophila melanogaster but has adapted to a distinct ecological niche – to understand what features of the brain has changed over millions of years and how it changed the behavior. We aim to expand his analysis to central brain neurons and non-neuronal cells by leveraging comparative and functional resources, such as natural genetic variations, calcium imaging, optogenetics, and virtual reality assays.
The main questions to be pursued in the lab are the following:
- How does peripheral composition affect olfactory coding and behavior?
- How do dietary shifts and their associated nutritional changes impact brain function and behavior?
- How do changes in non-neuronal cells affect brain function and behavior?
Selected Publications:
Original articles
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Takagi S, Abuin L, Mermet J, Lee D, Benton R
“A GPCR signaling pathway in insect odor detection“
bioRxiv, 2025, doi: 10.1101/2025.10.03.680299 -
Takagi S, Takano S, Kubo T, Hashimoto Y, Morise S, Zeng X, Nose A
“Segment-Specific Axon Guidance by Wnt/Fz Signaling Diversifies Motor Commands in Drosophila Larvae”
eLife, 2025 13:RP98624 doi: 10.7554/eLife.98624 -
Dürr BR, Bertolini E†, Takagi S†, Pascual J†, Abuin L, Lucarelli G, Benton R, Auer TO (†: equal contribution)
“Olfactory projection neuron rewiring in the brain of an ecological specialist”
Cell Reports, 2025; 44(5):115615 doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115615 -
Takagi S†*, Sancer G, Abuin L, Stupski SD, Arguello JR, Prieto-Godino LL, Stern DL, Cruchet S, Álvarez-Ocaña R, Wienecke CFR, van Breugel F, Jeanne JM, Auer TO†*, Benton R* (†: equal contribution, *: corresponding authors)
“Olfactory sensory neuron population expansions influence projection neuron adaptation and enhance odour tracking”
Nature Communications, 2024, Aug 15;15(1):7041. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50808-w PMID: 39147786 -
Takagi S, Cocanougher BT, Niki S, Miyamoto D, Kohsaka H, Kazama H, Fetter RD, Truman JW, Zlatic M, Cardona A, Nose A
“Divergent Connectivity of Homologous Command-like Neurons Mediates Segment-Specific Touch Responses in Drosophila”
Neuron, 2017 Dec 20;96(6):1373-1387.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.10.030. Epub 2017 Nov 30. PMID: 29198754.
Review articles
- Takagi S, Benton R “Animal Behavior: A Neural Basis of Individuality” Curr Biol. 2020 Jun 22;30(12):R710-R712. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.052. PMID: 32574634.
- Takagi S*, Nose A. (*: corresponding author) “Circuit architecture for somatotopic action selection in invertebrates” Neurosci Res. 2019 Mar;140:37-42. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2018.08.008. Epub 2018 Aug 18. PMID: 30130542.