Allatostatin-A neurons inhibit feeding behavior in adult Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: How the brain translates changes in internal metabolic state or perceived food quality into alterations in feeding behavior remains poorly understood. Studies in Drosophila larvae have yielded information about neuropeptides and circuits that promote feeding, but a peptidergic neuron subset whose activation inhibits feeding in adult flies, without promoting metabolic changes that mimic the state of satiety, has not been identified. Using genetically based manipulations of neuronal activity, we show that activation of neurons (or neuroendocrine cells) expressing the neuropeptide allatostatin A (AstA) inhibits or limits several starvation-induced changes in feeding behavior in adult Drosophila, including increased food intake and enhanced behavioral responsiveness to sugar. Importantly, thes

SUBMITTER: Hergarden AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3309792 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature