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Temporal responses of bumblebee gustatory neurons to sugars

Rachel H. Parkinson, Sébastien C. Kessler, Jennifer Scott, Alexander Simpson, Jennifer Bu, Adam Mahdi, Ashwin Miriyala, View ORCID ProfileGeraldine A. Wright
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.28.482341
Rachel H. Parkinson
1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK
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Sébastien C. Kessler
2Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland
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Jennifer Scott
1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK
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Alexander Simpson
3Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK
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Jennifer Bu
4School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, 92093, USA
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Adam Mahdi
5Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3JS, UK
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Ashwin Miriyala
6Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, OX1 3SR, UK
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Geraldine A. Wright
1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK
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  • ORCID record for Geraldine A. Wright
  • For correspondence: geraldine.wright@zoo.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

The sense of taste permits the recognition of valuable nutrients and the avoidance of potential toxins. Models of gustatory coding propose that within modalities (e.g. sweet, bitter, etc.), taste ligands are not distinct stimuli. However, these models are based on data from mice or flies that have omnivorous, non-specialist diets. A specialist feeder might, however, be expected to have acuity within modality if stimulus resolution was critical to survival. Previously, we found that bumblebees have a specialized mechanism for sensing sugars whereby two gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) within the galeal sensilla of the bees’ mouthparts exhibit burst of spikes. Here, we show that the temporal firing patterns of these GRNs separate sugars into four distinct groups that correlate with sugar nutritional value and palatability. We also identified a third GRN that responded to stimulation with relatively high concentrations of fructose, sucrose, and maltose. Sugars that were non-metabolizable or toxic suppressed the responses of bursting GRNs to sucrose. These abilities to encode information about sugar value are a refinement to the bumblebee’s sense of sweet taste that could be an adaptation that enables precise calculations of the nature and nutritional value of floral nectar.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted May 03, 2022.
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Temporal responses of bumblebee gustatory neurons to sugars
Rachel H. Parkinson, Sébastien C. Kessler, Jennifer Scott, Alexander Simpson, Jennifer Bu, Adam Mahdi, Ashwin Miriyala, Geraldine A. Wright
bioRxiv 2022.02.28.482341; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.28.482341
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Temporal responses of bumblebee gustatory neurons to sugars
Rachel H. Parkinson, Sébastien C. Kessler, Jennifer Scott, Alexander Simpson, Jennifer Bu, Adam Mahdi, Ashwin Miriyala, Geraldine A. Wright
bioRxiv 2022.02.28.482341; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.28.482341

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