Functional dissociation in sweet taste receptor neurons between and within taste organs of Drosophila

Vladimiros Thoma, Stephan Knapek, Shogo Arai, Marion Hartl, Hiroshi Kohsaka, Pudith Sirigrivatanawong, Ayako Abe, Koichi Hashimoto and Hiromu Tanimoto ()
Additional contact information
Vladimiros Thoma: Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University
Stephan Knapek: Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie
Shogo Arai: Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University
Marion Hartl: Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie
Hiroshi Kohsaka: Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Pudith Sirigrivatanawong: Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University
Ayako Abe: Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University
Koichi Hashimoto: Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University
Hiromu Tanimoto: Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Finding food sources is essential for survival. Insects detect nutrients with external taste receptor neurons. Drosophila possesses multiple taste organs that are distributed throughout its body. However, the role of different taste organs in feeding remains poorly understood. By blocking subsets of sweet taste receptor neurons, we show that receptor neurons in the legs are required for immediate sugar choice. Furthermore, we identify two anatomically distinct classes of sweet taste receptor neurons in the leg. The axonal projections of one class terminate in the thoracic ganglia, whereas the other projects directly to the brain. These two classes are functionally distinct: the brain-projecting neurons are involved in feeding initiation, whereas the thoracic ganglia-projecting neurons play a role in sugar-dependent suppression of locomotion. Distinct receptor neurons for the same taste quality may coordinate early appetitive responses, taking advantage of the legs as the first appendages to contact food.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10678 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:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10678

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10678

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 ().