Identification of a Drosophila glucose receptor using Ca2+ imaging of single chemosensory neurons.

ABSTRACT: Evaluation of food compounds by chemosensory cells is essential for animals to make appropriate feeding decisions. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, structurally diverse chemicals are detected by multimeric receptors composed of members of a large family of Gustatory receptor (Gr) proteins. Putative sugar and bitter receptors are expressed in distinct subsets of Gustatory Receptor Neurons (GRN) of taste sensilla, thereby assigning distinct taste qualities to sugars and bitter tasting compounds, respectively. Here we report a Ca(2+) imaging method that allows association of ligand-mediated responses to a single GRN. We find that different sweet neurons exhibit distinct response profiles when stimulated with various sugars, and likewise, different bitter neurons exhibit distinct resp

SUBMITTER: Miyamoto T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3571953 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature