Multisensory perception of dietary faty-acids in Drosophila.

International audience; Fatty-acids (FAs) are crucial for animal survival and reproduction. However, our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the perception and preference of dietary FA is limited, particularly in invertebrates. We obtained behavioral data with wild-type Drosophila melanogaster larvae and adults showing a clear preference to some of the FAs tested (C14:0, C16:0, C18:0, C18:1, C18:2, C18:3). These data, based on tests involving both individuals and groups, showed that larvae prefer desaturated FAs whereas adults prefer saturated FAs. Moreover, we found that larval and adult responses relied on olfaction and taste modalities, and maybe also on mechanoperception [1]. We will…