miR-184 is Critical for the motility-related PNS development in Drosophila

•miR-184 absence results in reduced motility in adult Drosophila.•Although miR-184 knock out (KO) mutant does not exhibit dysplasia in central nervous system, lack of miR-184 causes peripheral nervous system abnormalities, including neuromuscular junction (NMJ) aberrance and sensory neuron disorder.•NMJ4 with miR-184 knock out exhibits abnormal features in bouton number, mini-bouton number, and bouton area, which can be perfectly or partially rescued by elav-GAL initiated miR-184 expressing. These morphological phenotypes are all associated with locomotor ability. However, elav-GAL driven miR-184 over-expression does not change any NMJ4 features.•The onset of highly increased dbd/ddaA distance is evident at late embryonic stages in miR-184 KO mutant. This aberrance of peripheral nerve persists during development and continues through third instar larva stage and beyond.