A complex peripheral code for salt taste in Drosophila
Open accessAbstract
Each taste modality is generally encoded by a single, molecularly defined, population of sensory cells. However, salt stimulates multiple taste pathways in mammals and insects, suggesting a more complex code for salt taste. Here, we examine salt coding in Drosophila. After creating a comprehensive molecular map comprised of five discrete sensory neuron classes across the fly labellum, we find that four are activated by salt: two exhibiting characteristics of ‘low salt’ cells, and two ‘high salt’ classes. Behaviorally, low salt attraction depends primarily on ‘sweet’ neurons, with additional input from neurons expressing the ionotropic receptor IR94e. High salt avoidance is mediated by ‘bitter’ neurons and a population of glutamatergic neurons expressing Ppk23. Interestingly, the impact of these glutamatergic neurons depends on prior salt consumption. These results support a complex model for salt coding in flies that combinatorially integrates inputs from across cell types to afford robust and flexible salt behaviors.
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Ir94e neurons respond to salt and the presentation of male genitals, but the exact tastants Ir94e neurons respond to are not well understood.
“Ir94e neurons respond to salt and the presentation of male genitals, but the exact tastants Ir94e neurons respond to are not well understood31,33,37,38.”
From A Drosophila computational brain model reveals sensorimotor processing (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
The Results section, “All labellar GRN classes respond to salt” (page unavailable), reports weak salt-evoked activity in IR94e neurons. The Discussion section, “Ppk23 labels a new high salt cell” (page unavailable), says their primary taste ligands remain unidentified. Our copy does not report an IR94e response to presentation of male genitals; its discussion of male pheromone responses concerns Ppk23 neurons instead. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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A Drosophila computational brain model reveals sensorimotor processing
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“Ir94e neurons respond to low salt concentrations and the presentation of male genitals, among other substances 31,38 , and are suggested to play a role in mediating attraction to low salt 31 .”
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BackgroundInfluential<i>Drosophila</i> gustatory projections are segregated by taste modality and connectivity
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- Authors
- Jaeger, A. H., Stanley, M., Weiss, Z. F., Musso, P.-Y., Chan, R. C., Zhang, H., Feldman-Kiss, D., & Gordon, M. D.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Gordon, Michael D
- Venue
- eLife
- Publisher
- eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
- Published
- 2018-10-11
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- e37167
- ISSN
- 2050-084X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6181562
- OpenAlex
- W2897966571
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 6.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FDN-148424)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2016-03857, RGPAS-492846-16)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Ion Channels and Receptors
- Keywords
- salty taste, Drosophila, taste coding, glutamatergic neurons
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Avoidance Learning, Calcium, Drosophila melanogaster, Models, Biological, Pheromones, Sensory Receptor Cells, Sodium Chloride, Taste, Tetanus Toxin
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