Flies dynamically anti-track, rather than ballistically escape, aversive odor during flight

Wasserman, Sara; Lu, Patrick; Aptekar, Jacob W.; Frye, Mark A.

doi:10.1242/jeb.072082

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…For example, in a “fly-on-the-ball” paradigm, aversion was not triggered even using a strong repellent [4, 29]. In another study, flying flies responded symmetrically to aversive and attractive odorants [30]. Our more naturalistic approach provided new insights into the relationship between aversive and attractive chemotaxes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific Kinematics and Motor-Related Neurons for Aversive Chemotaxis in Drosophila

et al. 2013

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Summary Background Chemotaxis, the ability to direct movements according to chemical cues in the environment, is important for the survival of most organisms. The vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, displays robust olfactory aversion and attraction, but how these behaviors are executed via changes in locomotion remains poorly understood. In particular, it is not clear whether aversion and attraction bi-directionally modulate a shared circuit or recruit distinct circuits for execution. Results Using a quantitative behavioral assay, we determined that both aversive and attractive odorants modulate the initiation and direction of turns, but display distinct kinematics. Using genetic tools to perturb these behaviors, we identified specific populations of neurons required for aversion but not attraction. Inactivation of these populations of cells affected the completion of aversive turns but not their initiation. Optogenetic activation of the same populations of cells triggered a locomotion pattern resembling aversive turns. Perturbations in both the ellipsoid body and the ventral nerve cord, two regions involved in motor control, resulted in defects in aversion. Conclusions Aversive chemotaxis in vinegar flies triggers ethologically appropriate kinematics distinct from those of attractive chemotaxis, and requires specific motor-related neurons.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific Kinematics and Motor-Related Neurons for Aversive Chemotaxis in Drosophila

et al. 2013

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“…It has also been shown that leaf-cutter ants can discriminate the fungus strain and reject foreign fungus by the odour of the fungus (Ivens et al, 2008). And recently, it has been shown that Drosophila avoid bad smells (Wasserman et al, 2012). The smell might not be directly produced by the parasite, but could be an unavoidable interaction of the parasite and the substrate or stem from the metabolic secretion of the parasite.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social scent marks do not improve avoidance of parasites in foraging bumblebees

Fouks

Lattorff

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYForaging is a result of innate and acquired mechanisms, and is optimized in order to increase fitness. During foraging, an animal faces many threats, such as predation and infection. The uptake of parasites and diseases while foraging is common and an individual should be adapted to detect and avoid such threats, using cues from either the abiotic environment or the parasite. Social animals possess an additional cue to detect such contaminated food sources: information provided by conspecifics. Bumblebees avoid contaminated flowers, but the cues used by the bees to distinguish contamination remain unknown. Under controlled laboratory conditions, we tested the use of scent marks derived from other foragers in choosing between a contaminated (by Crithidia bombi) and an uncontaminated flower. As a positive control we tested the beeʼs choice between two flowers, one scented with geraniol and containing a highly rewarding sugar solution, and the other not scented and containing a poorer reward. The bees mainly chose the uncontaminated and the rewarding scented flowers. Scent marks did not increase the efficiency of the bumblebees in choosing the better flower. The bees from both experiments behaved similarly, showing that the main and most relevant cue used to choose the uncontaminated flower is the odour from the parasite itself. The adaptation of bumblebees to avoid flowers contaminated by C. bombi arose from the long-term host-parasite interaction between these species. This strong adaptation results in an innate behaviour of bees and a detection and aversion of the odour of contaminated flower nectar.Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/216/2/285/DC1 Key words: Bombus terrestris, Crithidia bombi, host-parasite interaction, social cue, social immunity, social learning. THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY 286 levels of social immunity, from the uptake of the parasite to its transmission to the next generation (Cremer et al., 2007). Social immunity may occur in the presence of a parasite (activated response) but also in the absence of parasites (prophylactic response) (Cremer et al., 2007;Richter et al., 2012).Bumblebees are parasitized by Crithidia bombi (Lipa and Triggiani, 1988) (Trypanosomatida), a well-adapted gut parasite of bumblebees (Schmid-Hempel, 2001). This parasite decreases drastically the chance for a future queen to found a new colony, and also the size and the efficiency of new colonies (Brown et al., 2003). According to the Red Queen hypothesis (Bell, 1982; Decaestecker et al., 2007), this long-term relationship leads to an arms race. Recently, Fouks and Lattorff (Fouks and Lattorff, 2011) discovered an avoidance behaviour in foraging bumblebees of flowers contaminated either by a specific parasite (C. bombi) or by a common microorganism (Escherichia coli: Bacteria).The combination of activated social immunity during foraging behaviour exhibited in bumblebees is of importance as parasites might be taken up on shared food patches (Durrer and ...

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“…We chose our repellents mainly on the basis of previous reports on their behavioral activity or -in the case of methyl salicylate -on predictions on the basis of the OSNs they activate and not on the basis of their activity in Flywalk Steck et al, 2012;Wasserman et al, 2012).…”

Section: Response Strategy Towards Repellentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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Flies dynamically anti-track, rather than ballistically escape, aversive odor during flight

Cited by 23 publications

References 47 publications

Specific Kinematics and Motor-Related Neurons for Aversive Chemotaxis in Drosophila

Specific Kinematics and Motor-Related Neurons for Aversive Chemotaxis in Drosophila

Social scent marks do not improve avoidance of parasites in foraging bumblebees

Compound valence is conserved in binary odor mixtures in Drosophila melanogaster

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