Dataset Information

Representations of Taste Modality in the Drosophila Brain.

ABSTRACT: Gustatory receptors and peripheral taste cells have been identified in flies and mammals, revealing that sensory cells are tuned to taste modality across species. How taste modalities are processed in higher brain centers to guide feeding decisions is unresolved. Here, we developed a large-scale calcium-imaging approach coupled with cell labeling to examine how different taste modalities are processed in the fly brain. These studies reveal that sweet, bitter, and water sensory cells activate different cell populations throughout the subesophageal zone, with most cells responding to a single taste modality. Pathways for sweet and bitter tastes are segregated from sensory input to motor output, and this segregation is maintained in higher brain areas, including regions implicated in learning and neuromodulation. Our work reveals independent processing of appetitive and aversive tastes, suggesting that flies and mammals use a similar coding strategy to ensure innate responses to salient compounds.

SUBMITTER: Harris DT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4474761 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Representations of Taste Modality in the Drosophila Brain.

Harris David T DT Kallman Benjamin R BR Mullaney Brendan C BC Scott Kristin K

Neuron 20150604 6

Gustatory receptors and peripheral taste cells have been identified in flies and mammals, revealing that sensory cells are tuned to taste modality across species. How taste modalities are processed in higher brain centers to guide feeding decisions is unresolved. Here, we developed a large-scale calcium-imaging approach coupled with cell labeling to examine how different taste modalities are processed in the fly brain. These studies reveal that sweet, bitter, and water sensory cells activate dif ...[more]

PMID: 26051423

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Project description:Behavioural responses to wind are thought to have a critical role in controlling the dispersal and population genetics of wild Drosophila species, as well as their navigation in flight, but their underlying neurobiological basis is unknown. We show that Drosophila melanogaster, like wild-caught Drosophila strains, exhibits robust wind-induced suppression of locomotion in response to air currents delivered at speeds normally encountered in nature. Here we identify wind-sensitive neurons in Johnston's organ, an antennal mechanosensory structure previously implicated in near-field sound detection (reviewed in refs 5 and 6). Using enhancer trap lines targeted to different subsets of Johnston's organ neurons, and a genetically encoded calcium indicator, we show that wind and near-field sound (courtship song) activate distinct populations of Johnston's organ neurons, which project to different regions of the antennal and mechanosensory motor centre in the central brain. Selective genetic ablation of wind-sensitive Johnston's organ neurons in the antenna abolishes wind-induced suppression of locomotion behaviour, without impairing hearing. Moreover, different neuronal subsets within the wind-sensitive population respond to different directions of arista deflection caused by air flow and project to different regions of the antennal and mechanosensory motor centre, providing a rudimentary map of wind direction in the brain. Importantly, sound- and wind-sensitive Johnston's organ neurons exhibit different intrinsic response properties: the former are phasically activated by small, bi-directional, displacements of the aristae, whereas the latter are tonically activated by unidirectional, static deflections of larger magnitude. These different intrinsic properties are well suited to the detection of oscillatory pulses of near-field sound and laminar air flow, respectively. These data identify wind-sensitive neurons in Johnston's organ, a structure that has been primarily associated with hearing, and reveal how the brain can distinguish different types of air particle movements using a common sensory organ.

Dataset Information

Representations of Taste Modality in the Drosophila Brain.

Publications

Representations of Taste Modality in the Drosophila Brain.

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