Chemical perception of harmful substances such as the bitter plant compound aristolochic acid (ARI) is performed in Drosophila by specialized peripheral gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs). Here, three opsins, Rh1, Rh4 and Rh7 are shown to be expressed on the same GRNs within the fly mouthparts. Low concentrations of ARI activate these opsins, triggering a signalling cascade involving TRPA1 that leads to GRN activation. Triple mutant flies lacking all three opsins show marked impairments in detection of low ARI concentrations. Higher ARI concentrations were found to activate TRPA1 directly and suggest that the GRN-expressed opsins function to amplify signals that would otherwise be too low to detect.
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Leung, N. Y. et al. Functions of opsins in Drosophila taste. Curr. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.068 (2020)
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Lewis, S. Multifunctional opsins. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 300 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0307-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0307-1
