Analysis of Drosophila TRPA1 reveals an ancient origin for human chemical nociception

Chemical nociception, the detection of tissue-damaging chemicals, is important for animal survival and causes human pain and inflammation, but its evolutionary origins are largely unknown. Reactive electrophiles are a class of noxious compounds humans find pungent and irritating, like allyl isothiocyanate (in wasabi) and acrolein (in cigarette smoke)1–3. Insects to humans find reactive electrophiles aversive1–3, but whether this reflects conservation of an ancient sensory modality has been unclear. Here we identify the molecular basis of reactive electrophile detection in flies. We demonstrate that dTRPA1, the Drosophila melanogaster ortholog of the human irritant sensor, acts in gustatory chemosensors to inhibit reactive electrophile ingestion. We show that fly and mosquito TRPA1 orthologs are molecular sensors of electrophiles, using a mechanism conserved with vertebrate TRPA1s. Phylogenetic analyses indicate invertebrate and vertebrate TRPA1s share a common ancestor that possessed critical characteristics required for electrophile detection. These findings support emergence of TRPA1-based electrophile detection in a common bilaterian ancestor, with widespread conservation throughout vertebrate and invertebrate evolution. Such conservation contrasts with the evolutionary divergence of canonical olfactory and gustatory receptors and may relate to electrophile toxicity. We propose human pain perception relies on an ancient chemical sensor conserved across ~500 million years of animal evolution.