Active sampling and decision making in Drosophila chemotaxis

Alex Gomez-Marin, Greg J. Stephens and Matthieu Louis ()
Additional contact information
Alex Gomez-Marin: EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Unit, Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and UPF
Greg J. Stephens: Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics & Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics Princeton University
Matthieu Louis: EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Unit, Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and UPF

Nature Communications, 2011, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The ability to respond to chemical stimuli is fundamental to the survival of motile organisms, but the strategies underlying odour tracking remain poorly understood. Here we show that chemotaxis in Drosophila melanogaster larvae is an active sampling process analogous to sniffing in vertebrates. Combining computer-vision algorithms with reconstructed olfactory environments, we establish that larvae orient in odour gradients through a sequential organization of stereotypical behaviours, including runs, stops, lateral head casts and directed turns. Negative gradients, integrated during runs, control the timing of turns. Positive gradients detected through high-amplitude head casts determine the direction of individual turns. By genetically manipulating the peripheral olfactory circuit, we examine how orientation adapts to losses and gains of function in olfactory input. Our findings suggest that larval chemotaxis represents an intermediate navigation strategy between the biased random walks of Escherichia Coli and the stereo-olfaction observed in rats and humans.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1455 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:2:y:2011:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1455

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1455

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().