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Pandey P, Shrestha B, Lee Y. Avoiding alkaline taste through ionotropic receptors. iScience 2024; 27:110087. [PMID: 38947501 PMCID: PMC11214294 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 05/20/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Taste organs contain distinct gustatory receptors that help organisms differentiate between nourishing and potentially harmful foods. The detection of high pH levels plays a crucial role in food selection, but the specific gustatory receptors responsible for perceiving elevated pH in foods have remained unknown. By using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, we have uncovered the involvement of ionotropic receptors (IRs) in avoiding high-pH foods. Our study involved a combination of behavioral tests and electrophysiological analyses, which led to the identification of six Irs from bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons essential for rejecting food items with elevated pH levels. Using the same methodology, our study reevaluated the significance of Alka and OtopLa. The findings highlight that Alka, in conjunction with IRs, is crucial for detecting alkaline substances, whereas OtopLa does not contribute to this process. Overall, our study offers valuable insights into the intricate mechanisms governing taste perception in organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Prakash Pandey
- Department of Bio & Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea
| | - Bhanu Shrestha
- Department of Bio & Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea
| | - Youngseok Lee
- Department of Bio & Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea
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2
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Wada-Katsumata A, Schal C. Glucose aversion: a behavioral resistance mechanism in the German cockroach. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2024; 63:101182. [PMID: 38403065 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2024.101182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2023] [Revised: 02/04/2024] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
The German cockroach is a valuable model for research on indoor pest management strategies and for understanding mechanisms of adaptive evolution under intense anthropogenic selection. Under the selection pressure of toxic baits, populations of the German cockroach have evolved a variety of physiological and behavioral resistance mechanisms. In this review, we focus on glucose aversion, an adaptive trait that underlies a behavioral resistance to baits. Taste polymorphism, a change in taste quality of glucose from sweet to bitter, causes cockroaches to avoid glucose-containing baits. We summarize recent findings, including the contribution of glucose aversion to olfactory learning-based avoidance of baits, aversion to other sugars, and assortative mating under sexual selection, which underscores the behavioral phenotype to all oligosaccharides that contain glucose. It is a remarkable example of how anthropogenic selection drove the evolution of an altered gustatory trait that reshapes the foraging ecology and sexual communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayako Wada-Katsumata
- Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
| | - Coby Schal
- Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
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Lazzari CR, Ortega-Insaurralde I, Esnault J, Costa E, Crespo JE, Barrozo RB. Mosquitoes do not Like Bitter. J Chem Ecol 2024; 50:143-151. [PMID: 38366062 DOI: 10.1007/s10886-024-01476-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 01/30/2024] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
Chemical repellents play a crucial role in personal protection, serving as essential elements in reducing the transmission of vector-borne diseases. A biorational perspective that extends beyond the olfactory system as the classical target may be a promising direction to move. The taste system provides reliable information regarding food quality, helping animals to discriminate between nutritious and potentially harmful food sources, often associated with a bitter taste. Understanding how bitter compounds affect feeding in blood-sucking insects could unveil novel molecules with the potential to reduce biting and feeding. Here, we investigated the impact of two naturally occurring bitter compounds, caffeine and quinine, on the feeding decisions in female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at two distinctive phases: (1) when the mosquito explores the biting substrate using external taste sensors and (2) when the mosquito takes a sip of food and tastes it using internal taste receptors. We assessed the aversiveness of bitter compounds through both an artificial feeding condition (artificial feeder test) and a real host (arm-in-cage test). Our findings revealed different sensitivities in the external and internal sensory pathways responsible for detecting bitter taste in Ae. aegypti. Internal detectors exhibited responsiveness to lower doses compared to the external sensors. Quinine exerted a more pronounced negative impact on biting and feeding activity than caffeine. The implications of our findings are discussed in the context of mosquito food recognition and the potential practical implications for personal protection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio R Lazzari
- Institut de Recherche Sur La Biologie de L'Insecte, UMR CNRS 7261 - Université de Tours, Tours, France.
| | - Isabel Ortega-Insaurralde
- Laboratorio de Neuroetología de Insectos, ETI2, Instituto Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental y Aplicada, IBBEA, CONICET-UBA, Departamento Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Jérémy Esnault
- Institut de Recherche Sur La Biologie de L'Insecte, UMR CNRS 7261 - Université de Tours, Tours, France
| | - Eloïse Costa
- Institut de Recherche Sur La Biologie de L'Insecte, UMR CNRS 7261 - Université de Tours, Tours, France
| | - José E Crespo
- Laboratorio de Entomología Experimental-Grupo de Investigación en Ecofisiología de Parasitoides y Otros Insectos (GIEP), Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Romina B Barrozo
- Laboratorio de Neuroetología de Insectos, ETI2, Instituto Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental y Aplicada, IBBEA, CONICET-UBA, Departamento Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Ma D, Hu M, Yang X, Liu Q, Ye F, Cai W, Wang Y, Xu X, Chang S, Wang R, Yang W, Ye S, Su N, Fan M, Xu H, Guo J. Structural basis for sugar perception by Drosophila gustatory receptors. Science 2024; 383:eadj2609. [PMID: 38305684 DOI: 10.1126/science.adj2609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/03/2024]
Abstract
Insects rely on a family of seven transmembrane proteins called gustatory receptors (GRs) to encode different taste modalities, such as sweet and bitter. We report structures of Drosophila sweet taste receptors GR43a and GR64a in the apo and sugar-bound states. Both GRs form tetrameric sugar-gated cation channels composed of one central pore domain (PD) and four peripheral ligand-binding domains (LBDs). Whereas GR43a is specifically activated by the monosaccharide fructose that binds to a narrow pocket in LBDs, disaccharides sucrose and maltose selectively activate GR64a by binding to a larger and flatter pocket in LBDs. Sugar binding to LBDs induces local conformational changes, which are subsequently transferred to the PD to cause channel opening. Our studies reveal a structural basis for sugar recognition and activation of GRs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Demin Ma
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurology of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
- Nanhu Brain-Computer Interface Institute, Hangzhou 311100, China
| | - Meiqin Hu
- Department of Neurology and Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
- New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Liangzhu Laboratory and School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China
| | - Xiaotong Yang
- Department of Neurology and Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
- New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Liangzhu Laboratory and School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China
| | - Qiang Liu
- Department of Neurology and Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
- New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Liangzhu Laboratory and School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China
| | - Fan Ye
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurology of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
- Nanhu Brain-Computer Interface Institute, Hangzhou 311100, China
| | - Weijie Cai
- Department of Neurology and Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
- New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Liangzhu Laboratory and School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China
| | - Yong Wang
- College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Ximing Xu
- Marine Biomedical Institute of Qingdao, School of Pharmacy and Medicine, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Shenghai Chang
- Center of Cryo-Electron Microscopy, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Ruiying Wang
- CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Wei Yang
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurology of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
- NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Sheng Ye
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Function and Application of Biological Macromolecular Structures, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Nannan Su
- International Institutes of Medicine, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Yiwu, Zhejiang 322000, China
| | - Minrui Fan
- CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
| | - Haoxing Xu
- Department of Neurology and Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
- New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Liangzhu Laboratory and School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Jiangtao Guo
- Department of Biophysics and Department of Neurology of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
- Nanhu Brain-Computer Interface Institute, Hangzhou 311100, China
- NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
- State Key Laboratory of Plant Environmental Resilience, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Department of Cardiology, Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Intervention and Regenerative Medicine of Zhejiang Province, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, China
- Cancer Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
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Pandey P, Shrestha B, Lee Y. Acid and Alkali Taste Sensation. Metabolites 2023; 13:1131. [PMID: 37999227 PMCID: PMC10673112 DOI: 10.3390/metabo13111131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2023] [Revised: 11/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Living organisms rely on pH levels for a multitude of crucial biological processes, such as the digestion of food and the facilitation of enzymatic reactions. Among these organisms, animals, including insects, possess specialized taste organs that enable them to discern between acidic and alkaline substances present in their food sources. This ability is vital, as the pH of these compounds directly influences both the nutritional value and the overall health impact of the ingested substances. In response to the various chemical properties of naturally occurring compounds, insects have evolved peripheral taste organs. These sensory structures play a pivotal role in identifying and distinguishing between nourishing and potentially harmful foods. In this concise review, we aim to provide an in-depth examination of the molecular mechanisms governing pH-dependent taste responses, encompassing both acidic and alkaline stimuli, within the peripheral taste organs of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, drawing insights from a comprehensive analysis of existing research articles.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Youngseok Lee
- Department of Bio and Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea; (P.P.); (B.S.)
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Pradhan RN, Shrestha B, Lee Y. Molecular Basis of Hexanoic Acid Taste in Drosophila melanogaster. Mol Cells 2023; 46:451-460. [PMID: 37202372 PMCID: PMC10336273 DOI: 10.14348/molcells.2023.0035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2023] [Revised: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Animals generally prefer nutrients and avoid toxic and harmful chemicals. Recent behavioral and physiological studies have identified that sweet-sensing gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) in Drosophila melanogaster mediate appetitive behaviors toward fatty acids. Sweet-sensing GRN activation requires the function of the ionotropic receptors IR25a, IR56d, and IR76b, as well as the gustatory receptor GR64e. However, we reveal that hexanoic acid (HA) is toxic rather than nutritious to D. melanogaster. HA is one of the major components of the fruit Morinda citrifolia (noni). Thus, we analyzed the gustatory responses to one of major noni fatty acids, HA, via electrophysiology and proboscis extension response (PER) assay. Electrophysiological tests show this is reminiscent of arginine-mediated neuronal responses. Here, we determined that a low concentration of HA induced attraction, which was mediated by sweet-sensing GRNs, and a high concentration of HA induced aversion, which was mediated by bitter-sensing GRNs. We also demonstrated that a low concentration of HA elicits attraction mainly mediated by GR64d and IR56d expressed by sweet-sensing GRNs, but a high concentration of HA activates three gustatory receptors (GR32a, GR33a, and GR66a) expressed by bitter-sensing GRNs. The mechanism of sensing HA is biphasic in a dose dependent manner. Furthermore, HA inhibit sugar-mediated activation like other bitter compounds. Taken together, we discovered a binary HA-sensing mechanism that may be evolutionarily meaningful in the foraging niche of insects.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bhanu Shrestha
- Department of Bio & Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Korea
| | - Youngseok Lee
- Department of Bio & Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Korea
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