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AMINO ACID TASTE MODULATION BY SWEET AND IR94E NEURAL PATHWAYS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
Neefe, Julia
Neefe, Julia
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Abstract
Sensory systems interact with the environment to drive behavior. Specifically, taste allows an organism to eat beneficial food and avoid dangerous substances. The model organism Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly, allows us to study how taste leads to behavior and the neurobiology of this phenomenon. This project focuses on understanding the complex and essential taste modality of amino acids, the primary way we consume proteins. Using the recently completed fruit fly whole-brain connectome I examined two neural circuits, one appetitive and one aversive, that are involved in modulating D. melanogaster feeding behavior to amino acids. From each neural circuit I identified one key higher order neuron to investigate. I then used the Proboscis Extension Response (PER) assay in combination with optogenetics to specifically activate or silence each neuron and determine their role in driving amino acid feeding. Looking at the appetitive neural circuit, I replicated previous data showing that activation of the appetitive Gr64f sensory cells and the higher order neuron Zorro activates PER in the absence of a stimulus, confirming their roles in this circuit. I found that silencing Zorro diminished PER to sucrose, an appetitive stimulus, but not tryptone, a physiologically relevant mix of amino acids. This suggests the importance of other pathways within the appetitive circuit for amino acid feeding behavior. Examining the aversive neural circuit, I found that activation of both the IR94e sensory cells and the higher order neuron Pringle suppresses PER to both sucrose and tryptone, confirming their aversive role in the circuit and indicating its significance in amino acid feeding behavior. Ongoing work focuses on silencing Pringle to further confirm its importance in the aversive pathway. This work helps us to better understand how neural circuits balance conflicting signals from amino acids to drive feeding behavior.
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2026-05-01
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Department of Biology