# Dissecting the first layer of central taste processing in Drosophila

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $366,136

## Abstract

Our sense of taste is critical in helping us decide what to eat. Altered taste perception is associated with obesity
and eating disorders, suggesting that dysregulation of taste processing may contribute to these conditions.
Understanding how the taste system flexibly transforms sensory input into behavior thus represents a
fundamental question underlying feeding decisions across healthy and disordered states. Two key questions
underpin the mechanisms of taste processing: how are neuronal responses to taste transformed along the taste
pathway, and how do these responses drive behavior? Studies in mammalian models have characterized
neuronal responses at each layer of the taste system, but it is not clear how these neuronal responses are used
to drive behavioral responses to taste. To address this gap, this proposal uses a model system, Drosophila
melanogaster, that offers unique tools to examine the connectivity, response properties, and behavioral role of
individual cell types within each layer of taste processing.
For decades, central taste circuits in Drosophila have remained largely unknown. Recent studies by our lab and
others have identified neurons that receive direct input from taste sensory cells, termed second-order neurons,
which represent the first layer of taste processing in the brain. These second-order neurons include diverse types
of taste projection neurons (TPNs) that relay taste information to higher brain regions. The goal of this proposal
is to determine how TPNs, both individually and as a population, transform sensory information and regulate
behavior. Our central hypothesis is that different types of TPNs encode different features of taste and make
distinct contributions to behavior, representing parallel pathways for sensory processing.
In Aim 1 we will use in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to determine how each type of TPN encodes and
transforms sensory information. We will test response properties such as taste selectivity, dose-dependence,
response dynamics, and hunger-dependent modulation. In Aim 2 we will examine how the information encoded
by TPNs is used to drive behavior. We will activate or silence each TPN type and examine the effect on a range
of taste-related behaviors, including feeding, locomotion, spatial preference, and learning. These experiments
will determine whether different TPN types represent separate pathways for regulating different aspects of
behavior, or whether TPN outputs converge downstream to regulate a common set of behaviors. In addition to
analyzing each TPN type individually, we will use computational modeling to examine how activity across the
TPN population is transformed into behavior. Together, these studies will reveal how taste encoding is
transformed at the first synapse and distributed across diverse cell types, and how these neuronal responses
are used to drive specific behaviors. Given the similarities in how flies and mammals respond to taste, we expect
to uncover fundamenta...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10776451
- **Project number:** 1R01DC021478-01
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Anita Vani Devineni
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $366,136
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-12-01 → 2028-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10776451

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10776451, Dissecting the first layer of central taste processing in Drosophila (1R01DC021478-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10776451. Licensed CC0.

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