title: Pharyngeal sense organs drive robust sugar consumption in Drosophila.
abstract: The fly pharyngeal sense organs lie at the transition between external and internal nutrient-sensing mechanisms. Here we investigate the function of pharyngeal sweet gustatory receptor neurons, demonstrating that they express a subset of the nine previously identified sweet receptors and respond to stimulation with a panel of sweet compounds. We show that pox-neuro (poxn) mutants lacking taste function in the legs and labial palps have intact pharyngeal sweet taste, which is both necessary and sufficient to drive preferred consumption of sweet compounds by prolonging ingestion. Moreover, flies putatively lacking all sweet taste show little preference for nutritive or non-nutritive sugars in a short-term feeding assay. Together, our data demonstrate that pharyngeal sense organs play an important role in directing sustained consumption of sweet compounds, and suggest that post-ingestive sugar sensing does not effectively drive food choice in a simple short-term feeding paradigm.
authors: Department of Zoology, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada.
authors: Emily E
authors: EE
authors: LeDue
authors: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
authors: Yu-Chieh
authors: YC
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Zoology, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada.
authors: Aera Y
authors: AY
authors: Jung
authors: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.|Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
authors: Anupama
authors: A
authors: Dahanukar
authors: Department of Zoology, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada.
authors: Michael D
authors: MD
authors: Gordon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D009154:Mutation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009474:Neurons; D064306:Non-Nutritive Sweeteners; D064427:Nutritive Sweeteners; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D010614:Pharynx; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D064306:Non-Nutritive Sweeteners; D064427:Nutritive Sweeteners; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors; C073863:Poxn protein, Drosophila