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

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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.

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Hany KM Dweck

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Shimaa AM Ebrahim

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Mohammed A Khallaf

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Christopher Koenig

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Abu Farhan

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, New York, United States

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Regina Stieber

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Jerrit Weißflog

Mass Spectrometry Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Aleš Svatoš

Mass Spectrometry Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Ewald Grosse-Wilde

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
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.
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.

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