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For the past 10 years, we have been trying to uncover the rules and the mechanisms that control dendrite morphogenesis by using a group of Drosophila larval sensory neurons known as dendritic arborization (da) neurons.We have gained some insights into dendrite development including how axons and dendrites are made differently, how a neuron acquires its neuronal type specific morphology, how the dendrites of different neurons are organized, how the size of a dendritic arbor is controlled, and how the pruning and remodeling of dendrites are regulated during development.We have also begun to study the relationship between neuronal function and dendritic morphology by using those da neurons.In order to study another important aspect of dendrite morphogeneis, namely, the potential role of sensory stimulation dependent dendritic plasticity in neuronal circuit wiring, we have recently started using as an assay system, another group of Drosophila larval neuron known as larval ventral lateral neurons (LNvs), which are part of larval light sensing circuits required for the entrainment to environmental light dark cycles and for larval light avoidance response.We found that the variation of sensory inputs induced substantial structural plasticity in dendritic arbors of the LNVs and concomitant changes of their physiological output.Furthermore, our genetic analyses have begun to identify critical molecular components in regulating experience-dependent modification of the postsynaptic dendrite morphology in Drosophila.