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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on September 3, 2007
Chemical Senses 2007 32(9):863-879; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm057
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Electrophysiological Characterization of Responses from Gustatory Receptor Neurons of sensilla chaetica in the Moth Heliothis virescens

Kari Jørgensen1, Tor Jørgen Almaas1, Frédéric Marion-Poll2 and Hanna Mustaparta1

1 Neuroscience Unit, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 2 INRA, Physiologie de l'Insecte: Signalisation et Communication, route de Saint Cyr, 78026 Versailles Cedex, France

Correspondence to be sent to: Kari Jørgensen, Neuroscience Unit, Department of Biology, NTNU, Olav Kyrres gate 9, NO-7489 Trondheim, Norway. e-mail: kari.jorgensen{at}bio.ntnu.no


  Abstract

Discrimination of edible and noxious food is crucial for survival in all organisms. We have studied the physiology of the gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) in contact chemosensilla (insect gustatory organs) located on the antennae of the moth Heliothis virescens, emphasizing putative phagostimulants and deterrents. Sucrose and the 2 bitter substances quinine and sinigrin elicited responses in a larger proportion of GRNs than inositol, KCl, NaCl, and ethanol, and the firing thresholds were lowest for sucrose and quinine. Variations in GRN composition in individual sensilla occurred without any specific patterns to indicate specific sensillum types. Separate neurons showed excitatory responses to sucrose and the 2 bitter substances quinine and sinigrin, implying that the moth might be able to discriminate bitter substances in addition to separating phagostimulants and deterrents. Besides being detected by separate receptors on the moth antennae, the bitter tastants were shown to have an inhibitory effect on phagostimulatory GRNs. Sucrose was highly appetitive in behavioral studies of proboscis extension, whereas quinine had a nonappetitive effect in the moths.

Key words: antennal taste, contact chemosensilla, insect taste, proboscis extension, quinine, sucrose

Accepted 1 August 2007


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