RNA Taste Is Conserved in Dipteran Insects.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ribonucleosides and RNA are an underappreciated nutrient group essential during Drosophila larval development and growth. Detection of these nutrients requires at least one of the 6 closely related taste receptors encoded by the Gr28 genes, one of the most conserved insect taste receptor subfamilies.

Objectives

We investigated whether blow fly larvae and mosquito larvae, which shared the last ancestor with Drosophila about 65 and 260 million years ago, respectively, can taste RNA and ribose. We also tested whether the Gr28 homologous genes of the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae can sense these nutrients when expressed in transgenic Drosophila larvae.

Methods

Taste preference in blow flies was examined by adapting a 2-choice preference assay t

SUBMITTER: Fujii S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10273160 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature