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Pharyngeal sense organs drive robust sugar consumption in Drosophila

Author

Listed:
  • Emily E. LeDue

    (Cell and Developmental Biology, University of British Columbia)

  • Yu-Chieh Chen

    (University of California)

  • Aera Y. Jung

    (Cell and Developmental Biology, University of British Columbia)

  • Anupama Dahanukar

    (University of California
    University of California)

  • Michael D. Gordon

    (Cell and Developmental Biology, University of British Columbia)

Abstract

The fly pharyngeal sense organs lie at the transition between external and internal nutrient-sensing mechanisms. Here we investigate the function of pharyngeal sweet gustatory receptor neurons, demonstrating that they express a subset of the nine previously identified sweet receptors and respond to stimulation with a panel of sweet compounds. We show that pox-neuro (poxn) mutants lacking taste function in the legs and labial palps have intact pharyngeal sweet taste, which is both necessary and sufficient to drive preferred consumption of sweet compounds by prolonging ingestion. Moreover, flies putatively lacking all sweet taste show little preference for nutritive or non-nutritive sugars in a short-term feeding assay. Together, our data demonstrate that pharyngeal sense organs play an important role in directing sustained consumption of sweet compounds, and suggest that post-ingestive sugar sensing does not effectively drive food choice in a simple short-term feeding paradigm.

Suggested Citation

  • Emily E. LeDue & Yu-Chieh Chen & Aera Y. Jung & Anupama Dahanukar & Michael D. Gordon, 2015. "Pharyngeal sense organs drive robust sugar consumption in Drosophila," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7667
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7667
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