The internal state of an organism influences its perception of attractive or aversive stimuli and thus promotes adaptive behaviors that increase its likelihood of survival. The mechanisms underlying these perceptual shifts are critical to our understanding of how neural circuits support animal cognition and behavior. Starved flies exhibit enhanced sensitivity to attractive odors and reduced sensitivity to aversive odors. Here, we show that a functional remodeling of the olfactory map is mediated by two parallel neuromodulatory systems that act in opposing directions on olfactory attraction and aversion at the level of the first synapse. Short neuropeptide F sensitizes an antennal lobe glomerulus wired for attraction, while tachykinin (DTK) suppresses activity of a glomerulus wired for aversion. Thus we show parallel neuromodulatory systems functionally reconfigure early olfactory processing to optimize detection of nutrients at the risk of ignoring potentially toxic food resources.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08298.001

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Animals are born with a rich repertoire of robust behaviors that are critical for their survival. However, innate behaviors are also highly adaptable to an animal's internal state and external environment. Neuromodulators, including biogenic amines, neuropeptides, and hormones, are released to signal changes in animals' circumstances and serve to reconfigure neural circuits. This circuit flexibility allows animals to modify their behavioral responses according to environmental cues, metabolic demands, and physiological states. Aided by powerful genetic tools, researchers have made remarkable progress in Drosophila melanogaster to address how a myriad of contextual information influences the input-output relationship of hardwired circuits that support a complex behavioral repertoire. Here we highlight recent advances in understanding neuromodulation of Drosophila innate behaviors, with a special focus on feeding, courtship, aggression, and postmating behaviors.

The original version of this article includes Manuela Raffatellu, Pieter C. Dorrestein, and Rob Knight as authors. These authors do not feel they contributed substantially to the paper, did not read or approve the manuscript, and wish to have their names removed. The corresponding authors apologize for this mistake but thank these individuals for performing the DNA extraction, shotgun metagenomic DNA sequencing, metabolite extraction, and LC-MS/MS analysis. All authors agree to this change of authorship, and the conclusions of the paper have not changed.In addition, text edits to the STAR Methods section have been made to enhance clarity, and the shotgun sequencing datasets reported in the original paper have been transferred from http://ncbo.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/632613 to the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGAS000010046), which the authors feel affords better security for patient confidentiality.

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