A neonicotinoid pesticide alters Drosophila olfactory processing

Neonicotinoid pesticides are well-known for their sublethal effects on insect behavior and physiology. Recent work suggests neonicotinoids can impair insect olfactory processing, with potential downstream effects on behavior and possibly survival. However, it is unclear whether impairment occurs during peripheral olfactory detection, during information processing in central brain regions, or in both contexts. We used Drosophila melanogaster to explore the potential for neonicotinoids to disrupt olfaction by conducting electrophysiological analyses of single neurons and whole antennae of flies exposed to varying concentrations of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid (IMD) that were shown to cause relative differences in fly survival. Our results demonstrated that IMD exposure significantly reduced the activity of a single focal olfactory neuron and delayed the return to baseline activity of the whole antenna. To determine if IMD also impacts olfactory-guided behavior, we compared flies’ relative preference for odor sources varying in ethanol content. Flies exposed to IMD had a greater relative preference for ethanol-laced pineapple juice than control flies, demonstrating that neuronal shifts induced by IMD that we observed are associated with changes in relative preference. Given the interest in the sensory impacts of agrochemical exposure on wild insect behavior and physiology, we highlight the potential of Drosophila as a tractable model for investigating the effects of pesticides at scales ranging from single-neuron physiology to olfactory-guided behavior.