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      Neural basis of hunger-driven behaviour in Drosophila

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          Abstract

          Hunger is a motivational state that drives eating and food-seeking behaviour. In a psychological sense, hunger sets the goal that guides an animal in the pursuit of food. The biological basis underlying this purposive, goal-directed nature of hunger has been under intense investigation. With its rich behavioural repertoire and genetically tractable nervous system, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as an excellent model system for studying the neural basis of hunger and hunger-driven behaviour. Here, we review our current understanding of how hunger is sensed, encoded and translated into foraging and feeding behaviours in the fruit fly.

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          Most cited references79

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          Motor control in a Drosophila taste circuit.

          Tastes elicit innate behaviors critical for directing animals to ingest nutritious substances and reject toxic compounds, but the neural basis of these behaviors is not understood. Here, we use a neural silencing screen to identify neurons required for a simple Drosophila taste behavior and characterize a neural population that controls a specific subprogram of this behavior. By silencing and activating subsets of the defined cell population, we identify the neurons involved in the taste behavior as a pair of motor neurons located in the subesophageal ganglion (SOG). The motor neurons are activated by sugar stimulation of gustatory neurons and inhibited by bitter compounds; however, experiments utilizing split-GFP detect no direct connections between the motor neurons and primary sensory neurons, indicating that further study will be necessary to elucidate the circuitry bridging these populations. Combined, these results provide a general strategy and a valuable starting point for future taste circuit analysis.
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            A neural circuit mechanism integrating motivational state with memory expression in Drosophila.

            Behavioral expression of food-associated memory in fruit flies is constrained by satiety and promoted by hunger, suggesting an influence of motivational state. Here, we identify a neural mechanism that integrates the internal state of hunger and appetitive memory. We show that stimulation of neurons that express neuropeptide F (dNPF), an ortholog of mammalian NPY, mimics food deprivation and promotes memory performance in satiated flies. Robust appetitive memory performance requires the dNPF receptor in six dopaminergic neurons that innervate a distinct region of the mushroom bodies. Blocking these dopaminergic neurons releases memory performance in satiated flies, whereas stimulation suppresses memory performance in hungry flies. Therefore, dNPF and dopamine provide a motivational switch in the mushroom body that controls the output of appetitive memory.
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              A fructose receptor functions as a nutrient sensor in the Drosophila brain.

              Internal nutrient sensors play important roles in feeding behavior, yet their molecular structure and mechanism of action are poorly understood. Using Ca(2+) imaging and behavioral assays, we show that the gustatory receptor 43a (Gr43a) functions as a narrowly tuned fructose receptor in taste neurons. Remarkably, Gr43a also functions as a fructose receptor in the brain. Interestingly, hemolymph fructose levels are tightly linked to feeding status: after nutritious carbohydrate consumption, fructose levels rise several fold and reach a concentration sufficient to activate Gr43a in the brain. By using different feeding paradigms and artificial activation of Gr43a-expressing brain neurons, we show that Gr43a is both necessary and sufficient to sense hemolymph fructose and promote feeding in hungry flies but suppress feeding in satiated flies. Thus, our studies indicate that the Gr43a-expressing brain neurons function as a nutrient sensor for hemolymph fructose and assign opposing valence to feeding experiences in a satiation-dependent manner. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Open Biol
                Open Biol
                RSOB
                royopenbio
                Open Biology
                The Royal Society
                2046-2441
                March 2019
                27 March 2019
                27 March 2019
                : 9
                : 3
                : 180259
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica , Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
                [2 ]Molecular and Cell Biology, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica and Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center , Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
                Author notes

                A contribution to the special collection commemorating the 90th anniversary of Academia Sinica.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7079-7818
                Article
                rsob180259
                10.1098/rsob.180259
                6451361
                30914005
                2427208d-490c-454a-902f-553c403e12cb
                © 2019 The Authors.

                Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 12 December 2018
                : 4 March 2019
                Funding
                Funded by: Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004663;
                Award ID: 105-2628-B-001-005-MY3
                Award ID: 107-2311-B-001-0420-MY3
                Categories
                133
                Review
                Review Article
                Custom metadata
                March 2019

                Life sciences
                drosophila,neural circuits,hunger,feeding behaviour,food-seeking behaviour
                Life sciences
                drosophila, neural circuits, hunger, feeding behaviour, food-seeking behaviour

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