Olfactory Channels Associated with the Drosophila Maxillary Palp Mediate Short- and Long-range Attraction
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
- 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.
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© 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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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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