Tracking the Taste

Fruit fly males make for jealous mates, going to great lengths to ensure they alone sire a female’s offspring. After mating, males discourage any future rivals by leaving behind an anti-aphrodisiac molecule, known as a taste pheromone. Relatively little is known about how these chemical signals are perceived by insects, but this is changing, thanks to a recent study of this mating deterrent in flies. By selectively inactivating neurons [nerve cells] and testing the flies’ response to the taste pheromone, researchers were able to track the neurons involved in processing the signal, from receptors in the flies’ legs to cells in their brains, highlighted here. They also identified a crucial signalling molecule, tachykinin, without which males can't perceive the pheromone. Shedding light on the still mysterious mechanisms of taste perception in insects, their work also raises the possibility of one day harnessing the effects of tachykinin to control fly populations.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image by Meredith Calvert and Kah Junn Tan
• Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore; National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in eLife, June 2015