Generation of feeding decisions in the fly brain

适当的摄食决定对个体和物种的生存至关重要。在……里面 果蝇和哺乳动物一样，神经回路整合了关于食物质量和内部结构的信息 营养状态，以产生喂养决策。然而，到达和到达的神经回路 是否进行喂食决定是未知的。在这里，我们建议生成第一个电路级别的视图 果蝇的摄食决策电路。我们将从A开始定义馈电电路 以前发现的食道下带(SEZ)中间神经元，即摄食神经元(FDG)，它 激活时会生成复杂的进料顺序。此外，FDG只对 在饥饿的苍蝇中呈现美味的食物，表明FDG收到了关于 食物质量和饥饿状态都是如此。使用初步研究中确定的候选突触伙伴 一个新的SEZ Split-Gal4集合的行为筛选，我们将定义中继的中间神经元 关于饥饿状态和食物质量的信息给FDG并调查神经元 FDG的下游一起工作，产生一个进给电机序列。完成 这些实验将产生有史以来第一张果蝇味觉的功能接线图 并将提供对神经电路执行的计算类型的洞察 制定并执行饲喂决策。由于复杂的神经网络被认为出现了 通过扩展和组合在进化史早期出现的简单网络，洞察力 通过描绘果蝇的摄食回路获得的信息将成为理解 在更复杂的生物体中产生摄食决定的神经回路。

Appropriate feeding decisions are essential to individual and species survival. In Drosophila, like mammals, neural circuits integrate information about food quality and internal nutritive state to generate feeding decisions. However, the neural circuitry that arrives at and carries out feeding decisions is unknown. Here, we propose to produce the first circuit-level view of Drosophila feeding decision-making circuitry. We will define feeding circuits starting at a previously identified subesophageal zone (SEZ) interneuron, Feeding neuron (Fdg), which generates a complex feeding sequence when activated. Furthermore, Fdg only responds to presentation of palatable food in starved flies, suggesting that Fdg receives information about both food quality and hunger state. Using candidate synaptic partners identified in a preliminary behavioral screen of a novel SEZ split-Gal4 collection, we will define the interneurons that relay information about hunger state and food quality to Fdg and investigate how neurons downstream of Fdg work together to generate a feeding motor sequence. The completion of these experiments will produce the first-ever functional wiring diagram of Drosophila gustatory circuitry and will provide insight into the types of computations neural circuits perform to generate and carry out feeding decisions. Since complex neural networks are thought to arise by extending and combining simple networks arising earlier in evolutionary history, the insights gained by delineating Drosophila feeding circuitry will form the basis for understanding the neural circuits that generate feeding decisions in more complex organisms.