As mammals and flies feed: similarities … – Science Today

In an article published today in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers Champalimaud Neuroscience Program, in Lisbon, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, offer new insights into how the flies eat.

 “The fruit fly is an animal model of great value, however, as they are very small animals, has been a huge challenge to observe the details of their behavior, such as how they eat” – explains Carlos Ribeiro , principal investigator of the laboratory Behaviour and Metabolism of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme.

Carlos Ribeiro, Champalimaud Foundation

Inspired by the same technology that is used to sense the touch sensitive screens, the researchers developed the flyPAD (“fly proboscis and Activity Detector”) – a highly sensitive method to monitor the supply of flies. “This tool is based on the same technology that is used in devices such as iPads” – Carlos Ribeiro says. “Each time the fly touches the food, flyPAD detects this movement, allowing us to track and record the details of power at high resolution and in real time.” “We found that the flies eat rhythmically by extending its proboscis (organ, shaped snout, through which feed) in a very stereotypical way. When they are hungry, the flies do not change the pace of supply, but change the time delay between nibbles. This means . than the flies change different aspects of their behavior, depending on how hungry they feel Moreover, how the flies adapt their behavior is similar to how mammals make “ -. says Carlos Ribeiro.

In addition to flyPAD technology, researchers have developed another method that allows them to detect when the food reaches the nervous system of flies. “This was a very important step for hitherto only knew that the fly touched the food in a pattern, but could not answer the question – Fly is indeed eating”

Pavel Itskov

To answer this question, researchers have developed an ingenious method “We decided to use light .” – says Pavel Itskov , a postdoctoral researcher in the same laboratory. “ We took advantage of a firefly protein, which makes this shine at night, and we put this protein in the brains of fruit flies. Thereafter, the flies eat food containing a substance capable of activating protein brightness. Thus, we were able to relate the number and duration of flashes emitted by the fly brain, with the amount of food eaten and the kinetics of absorption of nutrients. “

The results of this method were amazing. “ Not only confirmed that the pattern of movements that we had identified leads to food intake, but also showed us that the food reaches the nervous system extremely rapidly” – says Pavel Itskov. “We can detect the light emission from the fly brain after only 20 seconds after the flies began eating, suggesting that nutrients may become available to the nervous system of flies very quickly.”

“The next step is to use these methods to understand how the brain regulates food intake. want to identify the neurons and the genes that control and are the basis of this behavior in real time. Since the regulation of food appears to be similar in flies and vertebrates, there is the intriguing possibility of the circuits or the genes used to control the power supply in vertebrates are similar to the fly. study This brings us towards closer to understanding how we choose what we eat and how much we eat, “ Carlos Ribeiro concludes.