title: Mechanosensory neurons control sweet sensing in Drosophila.
abstract: Animals discriminate nutritious food from toxic substances using their sense of taste. Since taste perception requires taste receptor cells to come into contact with water-soluble chemicals, it is a form of contact chemosensation. Concurrent with that contact, mechanosensitive cells detect the texture of food and also contribute to the regulation of feeding. Little is known, however, about the extent to which chemosensitive and mechanosensitive circuits interact. Here, we show Drosophila prefers soft food at the expense of sweetness and that this preference requires labellar mechanosensory neurons (MNs) and the mechanosensory channel Nanchung. Activation of these labellar MNs causes GABAergic inhibition of sweet-sensing gustatory receptor neurons, reducing the perceived intensity of a sweet stimulus. These findings expand our understanding of the ways different sensory modalities cooperate to shape animal behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry, 50-1 Yonsei-ro Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Yong Taek
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry, 50-1 Yonsei-ro Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Soo Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Division of Creative Food Science for Health, Korea Food Research Institute, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 13539, Korea.
authors.forename: Jaewon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry, 50-1 Yonsei-ro Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong Taeg
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry, 50-1 Yonsei-ro Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Seok Jun
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7282-2888
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Moon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020013:Calcium Signaling; D004330:Drosophila / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular; D055697:Taste Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels / Q000502:physiology; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C476010:Nan protein, Drosophila; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid