Mechanosensory neurons control sweet sensing in Drosophila

Yong Taek Jeong, Soo Min Oh, Jaewon Shim, Jeong Taeg Seo, Jae Young Kwon and Seok Jun Moon ()
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Yong Taek Jeong: BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
Soo Min Oh: BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
Jaewon Shim: Korea Food Research Institute, Seongnam-si
Jeong Taeg Seo: BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry
Jae Young Kwon: Sungkyunkwan University
Seok Jun Moon: BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Animals discriminate nutritious food from toxic substances using their sense of taste. Since taste perception requires taste receptor cells to come into contact with water-soluble chemicals, it is a form of contact chemosensation. Concurrent with that contact, mechanosensitive cells detect the texture of food and also contribute to the regulation of feeding. Little is known, however, about the extent to which chemosensitive and mechanosensitive circuits interact. Here, we show Drosophila prefers soft food at the expense of sweetness and that this preference requires labellar mechanosensory neurons (MNs) and the mechanosensory channel Nanchung. Activation of these labellar MNs causes GABAergic inhibition of sweet-sensing gustatory receptor neurons, reducing the perceived intensity of a sweet stimulus. These findings expand our understanding of the ways different sensory modalities cooperate to shape animal behaviour.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12872

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