Inês M.A. Ribeiro, PhD

Responsibilities

My research aims to understand the neural circuit mechanisms underlying processing of visual cues used in social behavior, either to localize potential mates or competitors, or even to recognize individuals of the same species. How are visual cues from discrete objects transformed and modulated by internal states?
I study courtship behavior in Drosophila melanogaster, a complex social behavior that relies on multimodal sensory input. In courtship assays performed in the lab, males are exposed to naturalistic cues, those emanating from other fruit flies, which the brain has evolved to handle. This provides an advantage in the quest to delineate the neural circuits governing courtship behavior and to find out how these neural circuits work.
Eintagsfliegen or mayflies, on the other hand, rely mostly on visual input for social behavior. The aquatic insects from the order Ephemeroptera dedicate their short, terrestrial, adult life to reproductive behaviors. Nothing is known about the genetic and neural bases underlying this peculiar reproductive strategy. How are visual cues from individuals of the same species processed and tranformed in the brain? How does the reduction in sensory space (mostly vision) and behavioral repertoire (only reproduction) relate to neuromodulation and internal states?

Publications:

- Ribeiro, I.M.A.*, Essbauer, W., Kutlesa, R. and Borst, A.. Spatial and temporal control of expression with light-gated LOV-LexA. G3 (Bethesda). PMID:35876796. * Corresponding author

- Ribeiro, I.M.A., Drews, M., Bahl, A., Machacek, C., Borst, A. and Dickson, B.J.. (2018) Visual projection neurons mediating directed courtship in Drosophila. Cell, 174(3): 607-621 https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.cell.2018.06.020 ; PMID: 30033367.

- Ribeiro, I., Yuan, L., Tanentzapf, G., Dowling, J. and Kiger, A.A.. (2011). Phosphoinositide Regulation of Integrin Trafficking Required for Muscle Attachment and Maintenance. PLOS Genetics 7(2): e1001295, 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1001295; PMID: 21347281.

- Velichkova, M., Juan, J., Kadandale, P., Jean, S., Ribeiro, I., Raman, V., Stefan, C. and Kiger, A.A.. (2010) Drosophila Mtm and class II PI3K coregulate a PI(3)P pool with cortical and endolysosomal functions. Journal of Cell Biology, 190:407-425; PMID: 20696708.

- Ribeiro, I., Kawakami, Y., Raya, A., Buscher, D., Morita, M., Rodriguez-Esteban, C., Rodriguez León, J. and Izpisúa Belmonte, J.C.. (2007) Tbx2 and Tbx3 regulate the dynamics of cell proliferation during heart remodeling. PLOS ONE, 2(4):e398, 1-10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0000398; PMID: 17460765.

- Weninger, W.J., Geyer, S.H., Mohun, T.J., Rasskin-Gutman, D., Matsui, T., Ribeiro, I., Costa, L., Izpisúa Belmonte, J.C., Muller, G. B. (2006) High resolution episcopic microscopy: a rapid technique for high detailed 3D analysis of gene activity in the context of tissue architecture and morphology. Anatomy and Embryology. 211, 213-221; PMID: 16429276.