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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Multisensory perception of dietary faty-acids in Drosophila.

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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 present our recent data obtained with desat1 mutants (desat1 is involved in lipid metabolism), and with lines raised on FA-deprived food. Both larvae show a partially altered response to specific FAs. This indicates that different sensory modalities underlying the perception of FAs, can be separately altered either by a genetic mutation or by a peculiar diet. We have also experimentally selected a line where larvae show a reduced response to C18:0, which is normally strongly aversive. The larvae of these different lines varied for their lipid profiles. Together, these experiments suggest the existence of a possible link between perception and metabolism of FAs in Drosophila. [1] Fougeron , AS., Farine, JP., Flaven-Pouchon, J., Everaerts, C., and Ferveur, JF. (2011). Fatty-acid preference changes during development in Drosophila melanogaster. PloS ONE 6(10): e26899.