Skip Navigation


Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on January 29, 2008
Chemical Senses 2008 33(3):301-309; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm088
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
33/3/301    most recent
bjm088v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gordesky-Gold, B.
Right arrow Articles by Breslin, P. A.S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gordesky-Gold, B.
Right arrow Articles by Breslin, P. A.S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Drosophila melanogaster Prefers Compounds Perceived Sweet by Humans

Beth Gordesky-Gold, Natasha Rivers, Osama M. Ahmed and Paul A.S. Breslin

Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Paul A.S. Breslin, Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. e-mail: breslin{at}monell.org


  Abstract

To understand the functional similarities of fly and mammalian taste receptors, we used a top–down approach that first established the fly sweetener–response profile. We employed the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an omnivorous human commensal, and determined its sensitivity to an extended set of stimuli that humans find sweet. Flies were tested with all sweeteners in 2 assays that measured their taste reactivity (proboscis extension assay) and their ingestive preferences (free roaming ingestion choice test). A total of 21 sweeteners, comprised of 11 high-potency sweeteners, 2 amino acids, 5 sugars, 2 sugar alcohols, and a sweet salt (PbCl2), were tested in both assays. We found that wild-type Drosophila responded appetitively to most high-potency sweeteners preferred by humans, even those not considered sweet by rodents or new world monkeys. The similarities in taste preferences for sweeteners suggest that frugivorous/omnivorous apes and flies have evolved promiscuous carbohydrate taste detectors with similar affinities for myriad high-potency sweeteners. Whether these perceptual parallels are the result of convergent evolution of saccharide receptor–binding mechanisms remains to be determined.

Key words: comparative taste, convergent evolution, detection, high-potency sweeteners, ingestion, taste

Accepted 11 December 2007


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Chem SensesHome page
N. K. Dess, C. D. Chapman, and D. Monroe
Consumption of SC45647 and Sucralose by Rats Selectively Bred for High and Low Saccharin Intake
Chem Senses, March 1, 2009; 34(3): 211 - 220.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.