Drosophila Tracks Carbon Dioxide in Flight

Wasserman, Sara; Salomon, Alexander K.; Frye, Mark A.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.12.038

Cited by 62 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…S5) (Larsson et al, 2004;Stensmyr et al, 2003), and binary mixtures of these compounds largely follow the rules we derived with our odor set. Alternatively, the difference may arise from the fact that flies are walking in our paradigm, while they are flying in the wind tunnel, a difference that has been suggested to influence the evaluation of CO 2 (Wasserman et al, 2013). A fine-scale analysis of flight behavior in the wind tunnel particularly focusing on instantaneous responses upon plume encounter will be needed to resolve the reason for the differences between our results and the results provided by Becher and co-workers.…”

Section: The Valence Of Odor Mixturescontrasting

confidence: 44%

Compound valence is conserved in binary odor mixtures in Drosophila melanogaster

Thoma

Hansson

Knaden

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Most naturally occurring olfactory signals do not consist of monomolecular odorants but, rather, are mixtures whose composition and concentration ratios vary. While there is ample evidence for the relevance of complex odor blends in ecological interactions and for interactions of chemicals in both peripheral and central neuronal processing, a fine-scale analysis of rules governing the innate behavioral responses of Drosophila melanogaster towards odor mixtures is lacking. In this study we examine whether the innate valence of odors is conserved in binary odor mixtures. We show that binary mixtures of attractants are more attractive than individual mixture constituents. In contrast, mixing attractants with repellents elicits responses that are lower than the responses towards the corresponding attractants. This decrease in attraction is repellentspecific, independent of the identity of the attractant and more stereotyped across individuals than responses towards the repellent alone. Mixtures of repellents are either less attractive than the individual mixture constituents or these mixtures represent an intermediate. Within the limits of our data set, most mixture responses are quantitatively predictable on the basis of constituent responses. In summary, the valence of binary odor mixtures is predictable on the basis of valences of mixture constituents. Our findings will further our understanding of innate behavior towards ecologically relevant odor blends and will serve as a powerful tool for deciphering the olfactory valence code.

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Section: The Valence Of Odor Mixturescontrasting

confidence: 44%

Compound valence is conserved in binary odor mixtures in Drosophila melanogaster

Thoma

Hansson

Knaden

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…In Drosophila, the ionotropic receptors (IRs) IR64a and IR8a work together to detect a drop in sensory lymph pH, which could be induced by a high concentration of CO2 in the environment (Ai et al 2013). A recent study further showed that genetic disruption of the IR64a in Drosophila can alter their in-flight attraction to CO2 (Wasserman et al 2013). Therefore, IRs may be alternative receptors for CO2 detection in species that lack orthologous CO2 GRs (Ai et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon dioxide receptor genes in cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera

Xü

Anderson

2015

Sci Nat

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is important in insect ecology, eliciting a range of behaviours across different species. Interestingly, the numbers of CO2 gustatory receptors (GRs) vary among insect species. In the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, two GRs (DmelGR21a and DmelGR63a) have been shown to detect CO2. In the butterfly, moth, beetle and mosquito species studied so far, three CO2 GR genes have been identified, while in tsetse flies, four CO2GR genes have been identified. In other species including honeybees, pea aphids, ants, locusts and wasps, no CO2 GR genes have been identified from the genome. These genomic differences may suggest different mechanisms for CO2 detection exist in different insects but, with the exception of Drosophila and mosquitoes, limited attention has been paid to the CO2GRs in insects. Here, we cloned three putative CO2 GR genes from the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera and performed phylogenetic and expression analysis. All three H. armigera CO2 GRs (HarmGR1, HarmGR2 and HarmGR3) are specifically expressed in labial palps, the CO2-sensing tissue of this moth. HarmGR3 is significantly activated by NaHCO3when expressed in insect Sf9 cells but HarmGR1 and HarmGR2 are not. This is the first report characterizing the function of lepidopteran CO2 receptors, which contributes to our general understanding of the molecular mechanisms of insect CO2 gustatory receptors.

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“…Previous work has shown that CO 2 elicits behavioral reactions ranging from aversion [5,6] to attraction [12,13] to responses in between [14]. The spectrum of value assignments mirrors the ecological roles that CO 2 is known to play in the daily life of the fly, ranging from indicating the presence of an attractive food source on the wing [15] to signaling danger as a co-indicator of fly stress pheromone [5,16].…”

Section: Current Biologymentioning

confidence: 91%