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Sweet neurons inhibit texture discrimination by signaling TMC-expressing mechanosensitive neurons in Drosophila.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Wu, S-F; Ja, Y-L; Zhang, Y-J; Yang, C-H
Published in: Elife
June 11, 2019

Integration of stimuli of different modalities is an important but incompletely understood process during decision making. Here, we show that Drosophila are capable of integrating mechanosensory and chemosensory information of choice options when deciding where to deposit their eggs. Specifically, females switch from preferring the softer option for egg-laying when both options are sugar free to being indifferent between them when both contain sucrose. Such sucrose-induced indifference between options of different hardness requires functional sweet neurons, and, curiously, the Transmembrane Channel-like (TMC)-expressing mechanosensitive neurons that have been previously shown to promote discrimination of substrate hardness during feeding. Further, axons of sweet neurons directly contact axons of TMC-expressing neurons in the brain and stimulation of sweet neurons increases Ca2+ influx into axons of TMC-expressing neurons. These results uncover one mechanism by which Drosophila integrate taste and tactile information when deciding where to deposit their eggs and reveal that TMC-expressing neurons play opposing roles in hardness discrimination in two different decisions.

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Published In

Elife

DOI

EISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

June 11, 2019

Volume

8

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Transient Receptor Potential Channels
  • Taste
  • Sweetening Agents
  • Sucrose
  • Oviposition
  • Neurons
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Mechanotransduction, Cellular
  • Female
  • Drosophila melanogaster
 

Citation

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Wu, S.-F., Ja, Y.-L., Zhang, Y.-J., & Yang, C.-H. (2019). Sweet neurons inhibit texture discrimination by signaling TMC-expressing mechanosensitive neurons in Drosophila. Elife, 8. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46165
Wu, Shun-Fan, Ya-Long Ja, Yi-Jie Zhang, and Chung-Hui Yang. “Sweet neurons inhibit texture discrimination by signaling TMC-expressing mechanosensitive neurons in Drosophila.Elife 8 (June 11, 2019). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46165.
Wu, Shun-Fan, et al. “Sweet neurons inhibit texture discrimination by signaling TMC-expressing mechanosensitive neurons in Drosophila.Elife, vol. 8, June 2019. Pubmed, doi:10.7554/eLife.46165.

Published In

Elife

DOI

EISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

June 11, 2019

Volume

8

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Transient Receptor Potential Channels
  • Taste
  • Sweetening Agents
  • Sucrose
  • Oviposition
  • Neurons
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Mechanotransduction, Cellular
  • Female
  • Drosophila melanogaster