IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v461y2009i7261d10.1038_nature08295.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modification of CO2 avoidance behaviour in Drosophila by inhibitory odorants

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Lynn Turner

    (Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology Program,)

  • Anandasankar Ray

    (University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA)

Abstract

Fruitflies' carbon dioxide avoidance suppressed Fruitflies instinctively avoid CO2, for example that produced by stressed fellow flies, but they overcome this innate repulsion when CO2 is combined with other odorants, such as those produced by ripening fruits. Stephanie Turner and Anandasankar Ray report that such behaviour-modifying food odorants act directly on CO2-sensitive neurons in the fly antenna — not, as one would expect, indirectly via other olfactory pathways. Other naturally occurring odorants also blocked the action of CO2-responsive neurons from Culex mosquitoes, the insect vector for West Nile virus and filariasis. Given that these insects are drawn to CO2 emitted in human breath, these inhibitors of mosquito CO2-sensitive neurons could aid the search for repellent drugs that work by blocking this pathway.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Lynn Turner & Anandasankar Ray, 2009. "Modification of CO2 avoidance behaviour in Drosophila by inhibitory odorants," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7261), pages 277-281, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:461:y:2009:i:7261:d:10.1038_nature08295
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08295
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08295
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature08295?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:461:y:2009:i:7261:d:10.1038_nature08295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.