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Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)

Most animals possess taste receptors neurons detecting potentially noxious compounds. In humans, the ligands which activate these neurons define a sensory space called “bitter”. By extension, this term has been used in animals and insects to define molecules which induce aversive responses. In this...

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Autores principales: French, Alice, Ali Agha, Moutaz, Mitra, Aniruddha, Yanagawa, Aya, Sellier, Marie-Jeanne, Marion-Poll, Frédéric
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4658422/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26635553
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2015.00058
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author French, Alice
Ali Agha, Moutaz
Mitra, Aniruddha
Yanagawa, Aya
Sellier, Marie-Jeanne
Marion-Poll, Frédéric
author_facet French, Alice
Ali Agha, Moutaz
Mitra, Aniruddha
Yanagawa, Aya
Sellier, Marie-Jeanne
Marion-Poll, Frédéric
author_sort French, Alice
collection PubMed
description Most animals possess taste receptors neurons detecting potentially noxious compounds. In humans, the ligands which activate these neurons define a sensory space called “bitter”. By extension, this term has been used in animals and insects to define molecules which induce aversive responses. In this review, based on our observations carried out in Drosophila, we examine how bitter compounds are detected and if bitter-sensitive neurons respond only to molecules bitter to humans. Like most animals, flies detect bitter chemicals through a specific population of taste neurons, distinct from those responding to sugars or to other modalities. Activating bitter-sensitive taste neurons induces aversive reactions and inhibits feeding. Bitter molecules also contribute to the suppression of sugar-neuron responses and can lead to a complete inhibition of the responses to sugar at the periphery. Since some bitter molecules activate bitter-sensitive neurons and some inhibit sugar detection, bitter molecules are represented by two sensory spaces which are only partially congruent. In addition to molecules which impact feeding, we recently discovered that the activation of bitter-sensitive neurons also induces grooming. Bitter-sensitive neurons of the wings and of the legs can sense chemicals from the gram negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, thus adding another biological function to these receptors. Bitter-sensitive neurons of the proboscis also respond to the inhibitory pheromone, 7-tricosene. Activating these neurons by bitter molecules in the context of sexual encounter inhibits courting and sexual reproduction, while activating these neurons with 7-tricosene in a feeding context will inhibit feeding. The picture that emerges from these observations is that the taste system is composed of detectors which monitor different “categories” of ligands, which facilitate or inhibit behaviors depending on the context (feeding, sexual reproduction, hygienic behavior), thus considerably extending the initial definition of “bitter” tasting.
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spelling pubmed-46584222015-12-03 Drosophila Bitter Taste(s) French, Alice Ali Agha, Moutaz Mitra, Aniruddha Yanagawa, Aya Sellier, Marie-Jeanne Marion-Poll, Frédéric Front Integr Neurosci Neuroscience Most animals possess taste receptors neurons detecting potentially noxious compounds. In humans, the ligands which activate these neurons define a sensory space called “bitter”. By extension, this term has been used in animals and insects to define molecules which induce aversive responses. In this review, based on our observations carried out in Drosophila, we examine how bitter compounds are detected and if bitter-sensitive neurons respond only to molecules bitter to humans. Like most animals, flies detect bitter chemicals through a specific population of taste neurons, distinct from those responding to sugars or to other modalities. Activating bitter-sensitive taste neurons induces aversive reactions and inhibits feeding. Bitter molecules also contribute to the suppression of sugar-neuron responses and can lead to a complete inhibition of the responses to sugar at the periphery. Since some bitter molecules activate bitter-sensitive neurons and some inhibit sugar detection, bitter molecules are represented by two sensory spaces which are only partially congruent. In addition to molecules which impact feeding, we recently discovered that the activation of bitter-sensitive neurons also induces grooming. Bitter-sensitive neurons of the wings and of the legs can sense chemicals from the gram negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, thus adding another biological function to these receptors. Bitter-sensitive neurons of the proboscis also respond to the inhibitory pheromone, 7-tricosene. Activating these neurons by bitter molecules in the context of sexual encounter inhibits courting and sexual reproduction, while activating these neurons with 7-tricosene in a feeding context will inhibit feeding. The picture that emerges from these observations is that the taste system is composed of detectors which monitor different “categories” of ligands, which facilitate or inhibit behaviors depending on the context (feeding, sexual reproduction, hygienic behavior), thus considerably extending the initial definition of “bitter” tasting. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4658422/ /pubmed/26635553 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2015.00058 Text en Copyright © 2015 French, Ali Agha, Mitra, Yanagawa, Sellier and Marion-Poll. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
French, Alice
Ali Agha, Moutaz
Mitra, Aniruddha
Yanagawa, Aya
Sellier, Marie-Jeanne
Marion-Poll, Frédéric
Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)
title Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)
title_full Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)
title_fullStr Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)
title_full_unstemmed Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)
title_short Drosophila Bitter Taste(s)
title_sort drosophila bitter taste(s)
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4658422/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26635553
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2015.00058
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