title: Piezo controlled microinjection: an in vivo complement for in vitro sensory studies in insects.
abstract: Recent insights into insect olfactory signaling based on in vitro analyses have created an urgent need for equivalent in vivo analyses using living organisms. Here, we present a microinjection system that establishes a "virtual petri dish" within sensory structures for the application of agents to sensory neurons. Our system uses a series of pumps to inject chemical agents via air pressure into the surrounding lymph. We show using tetrodotoxin and forskolin application that robust effects on response dynamics of Drosophila melanogaster olfactory sensory neurons could be observed within 200 s, and suggest data analysis techniques to improve estimation of pharmacological effects on response kinetics. This approach provides an improved in vivo method to investigate questions in sensory neuron physiology as a complement to heterologous expression systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoell Str. 8, Jena 07745, Germany. solsson@ice.mpg.de
authors.forename: Shannon B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.forename: Merid N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Getahun
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wicher
authors.forename: Bill S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hansson
mesh_terms: D000399:Air Pressure; D000818:Animals; D005576:Colforsin / Q000494:pharmacology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D007260:Infusion Pumps / Q000592:standards; D008845:Microinjections / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D005576:Colforsin; D013779:Tetrodotoxin