Olfactory Channels Associated with the Drosophila Maxillary Palp Mediate Short- and Long-range Attraction

  1. Hany KM Dweck
  2. Shimaa AM Ebrahim
  3. Mohammed A Khallaf
  4. Christopher Koenig
  5. Abu Farhan
  6. Regina Stieber
  7. Jerrit Weißflog
  8. Aleš Svatoš
  9. Ewald Grosse-Wilde
  10. Markus Knaden  Is a corresponding author
  11. Bill S Hansson
  1. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
  2. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, United States

Abstract

The vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster is equipped with two peripheral olfactory organs, antenna and maxillary palp. The antenna is involved in finding food, oviposition sites and mates. However, the functional significance of the maxillary palp remained unknown. Here, we screened the olfactory sensory neurons of the maxillary palp (MP-OSNs) using a large number of natural odor extracts to identify novel ligands for each MP-OSN type. We found that each type is the sole or the primary detector for a specific compound, and detects these compounds with high sensitivity. We next dissected the contribution of MP-OSNs to behaviors evoked by their key ligands and found that MP-OSNs mediate short- and long-range attraction. Furthermore, the organization, detection and olfactory receptor (Or) genes of MP-OSNs are conserved in the agricultural pest D. suzukii. The novel short and long-range attractants could potentially be used in integrated pest management (IPM) programs of this pest species.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Hany KM Dweck

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Shimaa AM Ebrahim

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Mohammed A Khallaf

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Christopher Koenig

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Abu Farhan

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Regina Stieber

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Jerrit Weißflog

    Mass Spectrometry Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Aleš Svatoš

    Mass Spectrometry Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  9. Ewald Grosse-Wilde

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  10. Markus Knaden

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    For correspondence
    mknaden@ice.mpg.de
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  11. Bill S Hansson

    Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
    Competing interests
    Bill S Hansson, Vice President of the Max Planck Society, one of the three founding funders of eLife, and a member of eLife's Board of Directors.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Kristin Scott, University of California, Berkeley, United States

Version history

  1. Received: February 2, 2016
  2. Accepted: May 21, 2016
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: May 23, 2016 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: June 29, 2016 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2016, Dweck et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Hany KM Dweck
  2. Shimaa AM Ebrahim
  3. Mohammed A Khallaf
  4. Christopher Koenig
  5. Abu Farhan
  6. Regina Stieber
  7. Jerrit Weißflog
  8. Aleš Svatoš
  9. Ewald Grosse-Wilde
  10. Markus Knaden
  11. Bill S Hansson
(2016)
Olfactory Channels Associated with the Drosophila Maxillary Palp Mediate Short- and Long-range Attraction
eLife 5:e14925.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14925

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