Gustatory-mediated avoidance of bacterial lipopolysaccharides via TRPA1 activation in Drosophila.
Detecting pathogens and mounting immune responses upon infection is crucial for animal health. However, these responses come at a high metabolic price (McKean and Lazzaro, 2011, Kominsky et al., 2010), and avoiding pathogens before infection may be advantageous. The bacterial endotoxins lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are important immune system infection cues (Abbas et al., 2014), but it remains unknown whether animals possess sensory mechanisms to detect them prior to infection. Here we show that Drosophila melanogaster display strong aversive responses to LPS and that gustatory neurons expressing Gr66a bitter receptors mediate avoidance of LPS in feeding and egg laying assays. We found the expression of the chemosensory cation channel dTRPA1 in these cells to be necessary and sufficient for LPS avoidance. Furthermore, LPS stimulates Drosophila neurons in a TRPA1-dependent manner and activates exogenous dTRPA1 channels in human cells. Our findings demonstrate that flies detect bacterial endotoxins via a gustatory pathway through TRPA1 activation as conserved molecular mechanism.
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.|VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Leuven, Belgium.|Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven School of Medicine, Leuven, Belgium.
Alessia
A
Soldano
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Yeranddy A
YA
Alpizar
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Brett
B
Boonen
VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Leuven, Belgium.|Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven School of Medicine, Leuven, Belgium.|Neuroelectronics Research Flanders, Leuven, Belgium.
Luis
L
Franco
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Alejandro
0000-0002-6951-8321
A
López-Requena
VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Leuven, Belgium.|Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven School of Medicine, Leuven, Belgium.
Guangda
G
Liu
VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Leuven, Belgium.|Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven School of Medicine, Leuven, Belgium.
Natalia
N
Mora
Neuroelectronics Research Flanders, Leuven, Belgium.|Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
Emre
E
Yaksi
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Thomas
0000-0001-5526-5821
T
Voets
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Rudi
R
Vennekens
VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Leuven, Belgium.|Center for Human Genetics, University of Leuven School of Medicine, Leuven, Belgium.|Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière, Hôpital Pitié-Salpétrière, Paris, France.|Ecole Doctorale Cerveau Cognition Comportement, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France.
Bassem A
0000-0001-9533-4908
BA
Hassan
Laboratory of Ion Channel Research and TRP Research Platform Leuven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Karel
K
Talavera
D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D007473:Ion Channels; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000032:analysis*; D000074025:TRPA1 Cation Channel / Q000378:metabolism*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C579546:Gr66a protein, Drosophila; D007473:Ion Channels; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D000074025:TRPA1 Cation Channel; C475684:TrpA1 protein, Drosophila
D. melanogaster; Drosophila; TRPA1; gustatory system; neuroscience