Although most Drosophila species lay eggs in overripe fruit, the agricultural pest Drosophila suzukii lays eggs in ripe fruit. We found that changes in bitter taste perception have accompanied this adaptation. We show that bitter-sensing mutants of Drosophila melanogaster undergo a shift in egg laying preference toward ripe fruit. D. suzukii has lost 20% of the bitter-sensing sensilla from the labellum, the major taste organ of the head. Physiological responses to various bitter compounds are lost. Responses to strawberry purées are lost from two classes of taste sensilla. Egg laying is not deterred by bitter compounds that deter other species. Profiling of labellar transcriptomes reveals reduced expression of several bitter Gr genes (gustatory receptors). These findings support a model in which bitter compounds in early ripening stages deter egg laying in most Drosophila species, but a loss of bitter response contributes to the adaptation of D. suzukii to ripe fruit.

-The role of extrinsic and intrinsic factors in control of arm movement direction remains under debate. We addressed this question by investigating preferences in selection of movement direction and whether factors causing these preferences have extrinsic or intrinsic nature. An unconstrained freestroke drawing task was used during which participants produced straight strokes on a horizontal table, choosing the direction and the beginning and end of each stroke arbitrarily. The variation of the initial arm postures across strokes provided a possibility to distinguish between the extrinsic and intrinsic origins of directional biases. Although participants were encouraged to produce strokes equally in all directions, each participant demonstrated preferences for some directions over the others. However, the preferred directions were not consistent across participants, suggesting no directional preferences in extrinsic space. Consistent biases toward certain directions were revealed in intrinsic space representing initial arm postures. Factors contributing to the revealed preferences were analyzed within the optimal control framework. The major bias was explained by a tendency predicted by the leading joint hypothesis (LJH) to minimize active interference with interaction torque generated by shoulder motion at the elbow. Some minor biases may represent movements of minimal inertial resistance or maximal kinematic manipulability. These results support a crucial role of intrinsic factors in control of the movement direction of the arm. Based on the LJH interpretation of the major bias, we hypothesize that the dominant tendency was to minimize neural effort for control of arm intersegmental dynamics. Possible organization of neural processes underlying optimal selection of movement direction is discussed. arm movements; optimal control; multijoint; movement planning; intersegmental dynamics CONTROL OF ARM MOVEMENT DIRECTION has been extensively studied. Correlation between directions of motion and activity of neurons in primary motor cortex (M1) revealed with a population vector method (Georgopoulos et al. 1982) suggested a cortical representation of movement direction. This finding supported an interpretation that movement direction is planned in extrinsic space and is implemented through control relying on inverse kinematic and dynamic transformations. However, later findings revealed that M1 also contains neurons tuned to joint motions and muscle torques (Scott et al. 2001;Caminiti et al. 1991). Furthermore, directionally tuned neurons are not uniformly distributed. During horizontal shoulderelbow movements, directions achieved with flexion at one joint and extension at the other joint are represented by much more numerous neurons compared with directions in which both joints flex or both extend (Scott et al. 2001). These findings suggested that intrinsic factors (associated with joint motions and intersegmental dynamics) may play a primary role in formation of movement characteristics, including direction.Here, we...

Dounskaia N, Wang W. A preferred pattern of joint coordination during arm movements with redundant degrees of freedom.

No abstract

The agricultural pest Drosophila suzukii differs from most other Drosophila species in that it lays eggs in ripe, rather than overripe, fruit. Previously, we showed that changes in bitter taste sensation accompanied this adaptation (Dweck et al., 2021). Here, we show that D. suzukii has also undergone a variety of changes in sweet taste sensation. D. suzukii has a weaker preference than Drosophila melanogaster for laying eggs on substrates containing all three primary fruit sugars: sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Major subsets of D. suzukii taste sensilla have lost electrophysiological responses to sugars. Expression of several key sugar receptor genes is reduced in the taste organs of D. suzukii. By contrast, certain mechanosensory channel genes, including no mechanoreceptor potential C, are expressed at higher levels in the taste organs of D. suzukii, which has a higher preference for stiff substrates. Finally, we find that D. suzukii responds differently from D. melanogaster to combinations of sweet and mechanosensory cues. Thus, the two species differ in sweet sensation, mechanosensation, and their integration, which are all likely to contribute to the differences in their egg-laying preferences in nature.