Abstract
Across animal species, meals are terminated after ingestion of large food volumes, yet underlying mechanosensory receptors have so far remained elusive. Here, we identify an essential role for Drosophila Piezo in volume-based control of meal size. We discover a rare population of fly neurons that express Piezo, innervate the anterior gut and crop (a food reservoir organ), and respond to tissue distension in a Piezo-dependent manner. Activating Piezo neurons decreases appetite, while Piezo knockout and Piezo neuron silencing cause gut bloating and increase both food consumption and body weight. These studies reveal that disrupting gut distension receptors changes feeding patterns, and identify a key role for Drosophila Piezo in internal organ mechanosensation.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
American Heart Association (20POST35210914)
- Soohong Min
National Institutes of Health (NS090994)
- David Van Vactor
National Institutes of Health (RO1DK116294)
- Greg SB Suh
National Institutes of Health (RO1DK106636)
- Greg SB Suh
Samsung Science and Technology Foundation (SSTF-BA-1802-11)
- Greg SB Suh
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Stephen Liberles
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Claude Desplan, New York University, United States
Publication history
- Received: September 11, 2020
- Accepted: February 16, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: February 18, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: March 1, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Min 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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