View Program - 63rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference

The Anthropocene era poses a critical challenge for all organisms: they must cope with new threats at a faster rate than ever before. These threats include toxic chemical compounds released into the environment by human activities. Here, we examine high concentrations of heavy metal ions as an example of anthropogenic stressors. We find that different subsets of taste receptors contribute to avoidance behaviors towards eight metal ions when present at high concentrations that flies experienced rarely if ever until the Anthropocene. We analyze feeding and oviposition avoidance behaviors, and we identify taste organs, neurons, and receptors that contribute to the avoidance of metals. We find that metals activate some taste neurons and inhibit others. Receptor mutations have different effects on different avoidance behaviors. Some responses to metals are conserved across diverse dipteran species. Our results suggest mechanisms that may be essential to insects as they face challenges from environmental changes in the Anthropocene.

Meeting a threat of the Anthropocene: Robust taste avoidance of metal ions