# Generation of feeding decisions in the fly brain

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2020 · $69,306

## Abstract

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.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9908070
- **Project number:** 5F32DK117671-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Gabriella Rose Sterne
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $69,306
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-01 → 2021-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9908070

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9908070, Generation of feeding decisions in the fly brain (5F32DK117671-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9908070. Licensed CC0.

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