The closer the better: Sensory tools and host-association in blood-sucking insects

Ortega-Insaurralde, Isabel; Barrozo, Romina B.; Romina, B.

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2021.104346

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Genes for insect taste receptors are found within at least five gene families: gustatory receptors (GRs), ionotropic receptors (IRs), pickpocket channels (PPKs), transient receptor potential channels (TRPs), and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), specifically opsins ( Montell 2021 ). Receptor proteins from one or more of these receptor families are found in a diversity of insects, e.g., from Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Phthiraptera, Orthoptera, and Blattodea, although few species have been examined in each order ( Xu et al 2017b , Xu 2020 , Latorre-Estivalis et al 2021 , Yin et al 2021 , Ortega Insaurralde et al 2022 , and references therein). In all five of these gene families, only some of the genes and proteins are involved in taste ( Ni 2020 , Montell 2021 ).…”

Section: Tastants Activate Receptors On Neurons In Sensillamentioning

confidence: 99%

Gustation in insects: taste qualities and types of evidence used to show taste function of specific body parts

King

Gunathunga

2023

Journal of Insect Science

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The insect equivalent of taste buds are gustatory sensilla, which have been found on mouthparts, pharynxes, antennae, legs, wings, and ovipositors. Most gustatory sensilla are uniporous, but not all apparently uniporous sensilla are gustatory. Among sensilla containing more than one neuron, a tubular body on one dendrite is also indicative of a taste sensillum, with the tubular body adding tactile function. But not all taste sensilla are also tactile. Additional morphological criteria are often used to recognize if a sensillum is gustatory. Further confirmation of such criteria by electrophysiological or behavioral evidence is needed. The five canonical taste qualities to which insects respond are sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami. But not all tastants that insects respond to easily fit in these taste qualities. Categories of insect tastants can be based not only on human taste perception, but also on whether the response is deterrent or appetitive and on chemical structure. Other compounds that at least some insects taste include, but are not limited to: water, fatty acids, metals, carbonation, RNA, ATP, pungent tastes as in horseradish, bacterial lipopolysaccharides, and contact pheromones. We propose that, for insects, taste be defined not only as a response to nonvolatiles but also be restricted to responses that are, or are thought to be, mediated by a sensillum. This restriction is useful because some of the receptor proteins in gustatory sensilla are also found elsewhere.

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