title: Potencies of effector genes in silencing odor-guided behavior inDrosophila melanogaster.
abstract: The genetic toolbox inDrosophila melanogasteroffers a multitude of different effector constructs to silence neurons and neuron populations. In this study, we investigated the potencies of several effector genes - when expressed in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) - to abolish odor-guided behavior in three different bioassays. We found that two of the tested effectors (tetanus toxinandKir2.1) are capable of mimicking theOrcomutant phenotype in all of our behavioral paradigms. In both cases, the effectiveness depended on effector expression levels, as full suppression of odor-guided behavior was observed only in flies homozygous for both Gal4-driver and UAS-effector constructs. Interestingly, the impact of the effector genes differed between chemotactic assays (i.e. the fly has to follow an odor gradient to localize the odor source) and anemotactic assays (i.e. the fly has to walk upwind after detecting an attractive odorant). In conclusion, our results underline the importance of performing appropriate control experiments when exploiting theD. melanogastergenetic toolbox, and demonstrate that some odor-guided behaviors are more resistant to genetic perturbations than others.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Hans-Knoell-Straße 8, Jena 07745, Germany.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Retzke
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Hans-Knoell-Straße 8, Jena 07745, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thoma
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Hans-Knoell-Straße 8, Jena 07745, Germany.
authors.forename: Bill S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hansson
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Hans-Knoell-Straße 8, Jena 07745, Germany mknaden@ice.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6710-1071
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knaden
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005426:Flight, Animal; D017344:Genes, Insect / Q000235:genetics; D009812:Odorants; D018034:Olfactory Receptor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000235:genetics*; D016138:Walking
keywords: Behavior; Drosophila; Effector genes; Olfaction