| Title: | Food-derived volatiles enhance consumption in Drosophila melanogaster |
| Address: | "Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA creisenman@berkeley.edu. Essig Museum of Entomology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1477-9145 (Electronic) 0022-0949 (Print) 0022-0949 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Insects use multiple sensory modalities when searching for and accepting a food source, in particular odor and taste cues. Food-derived odorants are generally involved in mediating long- and short-range attraction. Taste cues, in contrast, act directly by contact with the food source, promoting the ingestion of nutritious food and the avoidance of toxic substances. It is possible, however, that insects integrate information from these sensory modalities during the process of feeding itself. Here, using a simple feeding assay, we investigated whether odors modulate food consumption in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster We found that the presence of both single food-derived odorants and complex odor mixtures enhanced consumption of an appetitive food. Feeding enhancement depended on the concentration and the chemical identity of the odorant. Volatile cues alone were sufficient to mediate this effect, as feeding was also increased when animals were prevented from contacting the odor source. Both males and females, including virgin females, increased ingestion in the presence of food-derived volatiles. Moreover, the presence of food-derived odorants significantly increased the consumption of food mixtures containing aversive bitter compounds, suggesting that flies integrate diverse olfactory and gustatory cues to guide feeding decisions, including situations in which animals are confronted with stimuli of opposite valence. Overall, these results show that food-derived olfactory cues directly modulate feeding in D. melanogaster, enhancing ingestion" |
| Keywords: | Animals *Cues Drosophila melanogaster/drug effects/*physiology Feeding Behavior Female Food Male Odorants/*analysis *Olfactory Perception Volatile Organic Compounds/*metabolism Behavior Feeding Fruit fly Olfaction Sensory integration Taste;neuroscience; |
| Notes: | "MedlineReisenman, Carolina E Scott, Kristin eng R01 DK098747/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural England 2019/05/16 J Exp Biol. 2019 May 29; 222(Pt 10):jeb202762. doi: 10.1242/jeb.202762" |
