A genetic tool kit for cellular and behavioral analyses of insect sugar receptors

Yavuz, Ahmet; Jagge, Christopher; Slone, Jesse; Amrein, Hubert

doi:10.1080/19336934.2015.1050569

Cited by 45 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Comprehensive electrophysiological and Ca 2+ imaging studies of taste sensilla revealed that both bitter as well as sweet GRNs have distinct tuning profiles [8, 12–15, 43, 44]. This observation is consistent with extensive expression analyses, which showed that different bitter GRNs express overlapping, but not identical, sets of bitter Gr genes [8, 13].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Ionotropic Receptors Mediate Drosophila Oviposition Preference through Sour Gustatory Receptor Neurons

2017

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Summary Carboxylic acids are present in many foods, being especially abundant in fruits. Yet, relatively little is known about how acids are detected by the gustatory systems, whether they have a potential role in nutrition or provide other health benefits. Here, we identify sour gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) in tarsal taste sensilla of Drosophila melanogaster. We find that most tarsal sensilla harbor a sour GRN that is specifically activated by carboxylic and mineral acids, but does not respond to sweet and bitter-tasting chemicals or salt. One pair of taste sensilla features two GRNs that respond only to a subset of carboxylic acids and high concentrations of salt. All sour GRNs prominently express two Ionotropic Receptor (IR) genes, IR76b and IR25a, and we show that both these genes are necessary for the detection of acids. Furthermore, we establish that IR25a and IR76b are essential in sour GRNs of females for oviposition preference on acid containing food. Our investigations reveal that acids activate a unique set of taste cells largely dedicated to sour taste, and they indicate that both pH/proton concentration and the structure of carboxylic acids contribute to sour GRN activation. Together, our studies provide new insights into the cellular and molecular basis of sour taste.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Ionotropic Receptors Mediate Drosophila Oviposition Preference through Sour Gustatory Receptor Neurons

2017

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“…The intial step in sugar detection and consumption are the gustatory-receptor-expressing (Gr) neurons that respond to sweet substances. To date, Gr5a, Gr43a, Gr61a, and Gr64a, b, c, d, e, and f have been implicated in sweet sugar detection (Dahanukar et al, 2007; Jiao et al, 2008; Yavuz et al, 2014; Freeman et al, 2014; Miyamoto et al, 2013). We therefore used Gr-GAL4 drivers to express the inward rectifying potassium channel Kir2.1 (Gr-GAL4/+; UAS-Kir2.1/+), silencing these sets of Gr-expressing neurons (Baines et al, 2001) in order to determine the neurons involved in D vs L preference and L-arabinose memory.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immediate perception of a reward is distinct from the reward’s long-term salience

McGinnis

Jiang

Agha

et al. 2016

eLife

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Reward perception guides all aspects of animal behavior. However, the relationship between the perceived value of a reward, the latent value of a reward, and the behavioral response remains unclear. Here we report that, given a choice between two sweet and chemically similar sugars—L- and D-arabinose—Drosophila melanogaster prefers D- over L- arabinose, but forms long-term memories of L-arabinose more reliably. Behavioral assays indicate that L-arabinose-generated memories require sugar receptor Gr43a, and calcium imaging and electrophysiological recordings indicate that L- and D-arabinose differentially activate Gr43a-expressing neurons. We posit that the immediate valence of a reward is not always predictive of the long-term reinforcement value of that reward, and that a subset of sugar-sensing neurons may generate distinct representations of similar sugars, allowing for rapid assessment of the salient features of various sugar rewards and generation of reward-specific behaviors. However, how sensory neurons communicate information about L-arabinose quality and concentration—features relevant for long-term memory—remains unknown.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22283.001

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“…Besides these core receptors, additional receptors may have a more specific role in the detection of particular chemicals such as GR59c for berberine, lobeline and denatonium (Weiss et al, 2011 ) and GR47a for strychnine (Lee et al, 2015 ). Sugar receptors may have a different set of core receptors (Dahanukar et al, 2001 , 2007 ; Chyb et al, 2003 ; Jiao et al, 2007 ; Slone et al, 2007 ; Wisotsky et al, 2011 ; Ling et al, 2014 ; Yavuz et al, 2014 ; Fujii et al, 2015 ). This might explain why expressing individual bitter GRs into sugar-sensitive GRNs (and reversely) has failed so far (Lee et al, 2009 ; Montell, 2009 ; Isono and Morita, 2010 ).…”

Section: Contact Chemoreception In Drosophila Adulmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)

French

Agha

Mitra

et al. 2015

Front. Integr. Neurosci.

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Most animals possess taste receptors neurons detecting potentially noxious compounds. In humans, the ligands which activate these neurons define a sensory space called “bitter”. By extension, this term has been used in animals and insects to define molecules which induce aversive responses. In this review, based on our observations carried out in Drosophila, we examine how bitter compounds are detected and if bitter-sensitive neurons respond only to molecules bitter to humans. Like most animals, flies detect bitter chemicals through a specific population of taste neurons, distinct from those responding to sugars or to other modalities. Activating bitter-sensitive taste neurons induces aversive reactions and inhibits feeding. Bitter molecules also contribute to the suppression of sugar-neuron responses and can lead to a complete inhibition of the responses to sugar at the periphery. Since some bitter molecules activate bitter-sensitive neurons and some inhibit sugar detection, bitter molecules are represented by two sensory spaces which are only partially congruent. In addition to molecules which impact feeding, we recently discovered that the activation of bitter-sensitive neurons also induces grooming. Bitter-sensitive neurons of the wings and of the legs can sense chemicals from the gram negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, thus adding another biological function to these receptors. Bitter-sensitive neurons of the proboscis also respond to the inhibitory pheromone, 7-tricosene. Activating these neurons by bitter molecules in the context of sexual encounter inhibits courting and sexual reproduction, while activating these neurons with 7-tricosene in a feeding context will inhibit feeding. The picture that emerges from these observations is that the taste system is composed of detectors which monitor different “categories” of ligands, which facilitate or inhibit behaviors depending on the context (feeding, sexual reproduction, hygienic behavior), thus considerably extending the initial definition of “bitter” tasting.

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A genetic tool kit for cellular and behavioral analyses of insect sugar receptors

Cited by 45 publications

References 27 publications

Ionotropic Receptors Mediate Drosophila Oviposition Preference through Sour Gustatory Receptor Neurons

Ionotropic Receptors Mediate Drosophila Oviposition Preference through Sour Gustatory Receptor Neurons

Immediate perception of a reward is distinct from the reward’s long-term salience

Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)

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