The basis of fructose sensation: Instructions provided by the peripheral nervous system to select appropriate behavioral actions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Stephan Thum
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 432195391

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

Gustatory stimuli are instrumental for an animal to sample its environment for energy-rich food sources to maintain survival, and to avoid unpleasant or poisonous substrates. Sugars often predict a nutritional benefit and are perceived as attractive and rewarding. Therefore, sugarrich food sources trigger a series of behaviors including attraction, food selection, and consumption - actions that are fundamental for all animals. Insects for example - like Drosophila - are attracted to most sugars that are also preferred by humans. Sophisticated mechanisms that allow Drosophila to detect, evaluate, and consume sugars are of special importance for its larva – the feeding stage of the animal. This period of the life cycle is restricted to only about 5 days, during which the animal increases its weight up to several hundred-fold. They grow from a tiny first-instar larva of about 10 μg to a wandering third-instar larva weighing about 2 mg. The main nutrients known to be critical for this period of rapid growth are sugars besides amino acids. To efficiently detect these substances, the larva utilizes a numerical simple but efficient peripheral nervous system. Accordingly, in this project we will analyze how the peripheral nervous system perceives and processes fructose stimuli from its environment to select the appropriate action at the right time. We aim to provide an answer on how the numerically simple and functional accessible larval peripheral sensory system instructs food-related action selection. A task that every animal has to solve in order to survive.

Publications

• Food restriction reconfigures naïve and learned choice behavior inDrosophilalarvae. Journal of Neurogenetics, 34(1), 123-132.
  Brünner, Benita; Saumweber, Juliane; Samur, Merve; Weber, Denise; Schumann, Isabell; Mahishi, Deepthi; Rohwedder, Astrid & Thum, Andreas S.
  
• Synchronous and opponent thermosensors use flexible cross-inhibition to orchestrate thermal homeostasis. Science Advances, 7(35).
  Hernandez-Nunez, Luis; Chen, Alicia; Budelli, Gonzalo; Berck, Matthew E.; Richter, Vincent; Rist, Anna; Thum, Andreas S.; Cardona, Albert; Klein, Mason; Garrity, Paul & Samuel, Aravinthan D. T.
  
• Learning and Memory inDrosophilaLarvae. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, 2023(3), pdb.top107863.
  Weber, Denise; Richter, Vincent; Rohwedder, Astrid; Großjohann, Alexandra & Thum, Andreas S.
  
• The Analysis of Aversive Olfactory–Taste Learning and Memory inDrosophilaLarvae. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, 2023(3), pdb.prot108050.
  Weber, Denise; Richter, Vincent; Rohwedder, Astrid; Großjohann, Alexandra & Thum, Andreas S.
  
• Rewarding Capacity of Optogenetically Activating a Giant GABAergic Central-Brain Interneuron in Larval Drosophila. The Journal of Neuroscience, 43(44), 7393-7428.
  Mancini, Nino; Thoener, Juliane; Tafani, Esmeralda; Pauls, Dennis; Mayseless, Oded; Strauch, Martin; Eichler, Katharina; Champion, Andrew; Kobler, Oliver; Weber, Denise; Sen, Edanur; Weiglein, Aliće; Hartenstein, Volker; Chytoudis-Peroudis, Charalampos-Chrysovalantis; Jovanic, Tihana; Thum, Andreas S.; Rohwedder, Astrid; Schleyer, Michael & Gerber, Bertram
  
• The adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor mayo/CG11318 controls midgut development in Drosophila. Cell Reports, 43(1), 113640.
  Vieira, Contreras Fernando; Auger, Genevieve M.; Müller, Lena; Richter, Vincent; Huetteroth, Wolf; Seufert, Florian; Hildebrand, Peter W.; Scholz, Nicole; Thum, Andreas S.; Ljaschenko, Dmitrij; Blanco-Redondo, Beatriz & Langenhan, Tobias
  
• Four individually identified paired dopamine neurons signal taste punishment in larval Drosophila. eLife, 12.
  Weber, Denise; Vogt, Katrin; Miroschnikow, Anton; Pankratz, Michael J. & Thum, Andreas S.
  
• Morphology and ultrastructure of external sense organs of Drosophila larvae. eLife, 12.
  Richter, Vincent; Rist, Anna; Kislinger, Georg; Laumann, Michael; Schoofs, Andreas; Miroschnikow, Anton; Pankratz, Michael J.; Cardona, Albert & Thum, Andreas S.