Food consumption is under the tight control of the brain, which integrates the physiological status, palatability, and nutritional contents of the food, and issues commands to start or stop feeding. Deciphering the processes underlying the decision-making of timely and moderate feeding carries major implications in our understanding of physiological and psychological disorders related to feeding control. Simple, quantitative, and robust methods are required to measure the food ingestion of animals after experimental manipulation, such as forcibly increasing the activities of certain target neurons. Here, we introduced dye-labeling-based feeding assays to facilitate the neurogenetic study of feeding control in adult fruit flies. We review available feeding assays, and then describe our methods step-by-step from setup to analysis, which combine thermogenetic and optogenetic manipulation of neurons controlling feeding motivation with dye-labeled food intake assay. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of our methods, compared with other feeding assays, to help readers choose an appropriate assay.

The brain has an essential role in maintaining a balance between energy intake and expenditure of the body. Deciphering the processes underlying the decision-making for timely feeding of appropriate amounts may improve our understanding of physiological and psychological disorders related to feeding control. Here, we identify a group of appetite-enhancing neurons in a behavioural screen for flies with increased appetite. Manipulating the activity of these neurons, which we name Taotie neurons, induces bidirectional changes in feeding motivation. Long-term stimulation of Taotie neurons results in flies with highly obese phenotypes. Furthermore, we show that the in vivo activity of Taotie neurons in the neuroendocrine region reflects the hunger/satiety states of un-manipulated animals, and that appetitive-enhancing Taotie neurons control the secretion of insulin, a known regulator of feeding behaviour. Thus, our study reveals a new set of neurons regulating feeding behaviour in the high brain regions that represents physiological hunger states and control feeding behaviour in Drosophila.

To fully understand the mystery of the brain is the biggest challenge facing the modern science. A deeper knowledge of how a brain works will have profound implications, both for appreciating our own minds, ranging from intelligence to emotion, and for treatments of brain diseases that have brought much sufferings to individuals and society. As a model organism for modern neuroscience, the common fruit fly, Drosophila, is emerging as one of the primary choice for studying the genetic basis and neural circuit of behavior. This review will focus on higher brain functions, including learning and memory, motivation, emotional and social behaviors in Drosophila. We will cover the significance, background, current progress, and prospect of the related topics. We hope this review would help the readers to catch a glimpse of the dynamic range of Drosophila neurogenetic research and the leading edge of the brain science.

Humidity is one of the most important factors that determines the geographical distribution and survival of terrestrial animals. The ability to detect variation in humidity is conserved across many species. Here, we established a novel behavioral assay that revealed the thirsty Drosophila exhibits strong hygrotactic behavior, and it can locate water by detecting humidity gradient. In addition, exposure to high levels of moisture was sufficient to elicit proboscis extension reflex behavior in thirsty flies. Furthermore, we found that the third antennal segment was necessary for hygrotactic behavior in thirsty flies, while arista was required for the avoidance of moist air in hydrated flies. These results indicated that two types of hygroreceptor cells exist in Drosophila: one located in the third antennal segment that mediates hygrotactic behavior in thirst status, and the other located in arista which is responsible for the aversive behavior toward moist air in hydration status. Using a neural silencing screen, we demonstrated that synaptic output from the mushroom body alpha/beta surface and posterior neurons was required for both hygrotactic behavior and moisture-aversive behavior.

BACKGROUND: Drosophila Dscam1 is a cell-surface protein that plays important roles in neural development and axon tiling of neurons. It is known that thousands of isoforms bind themselves through specific homophilic interactions, a process which provides the basis for cellular self-recognition. Detailed biochemical studies of specific isoforms strongly suggest that homophilic binding, i.e. the formation of homodimers by identical Dscam1 isomers, is of great importance for the self-avoidance of neurons. Due to experimental limitations, it is currently impossible to measure the homophilic binding affinities for all 19,000 potential isoforms. RESULTS: Here we reconstructed the DNA sequences of an ancestral Dscam form (which likely existed approximately 40 ~ 50 million years ago) using a comparative genomic approach. On the basis of this sequence, we established a working model to predict the self-binding affinities of all isoforms in both the current and the ancestral genome, using machine-learning methods. Detailed computational analysis was performed to compare the self-binding affinities of all isoforms present in these two genomes. Our results revealed that 1) isoforms containing newly derived variable domains exhibit higher self-binding affinities than those with conserved domains, and 2) current isoforms display higher self-binding affinities than their counterparts in the ancient genome. As thousands of Dscam isoforms are needed for the self-avoidance of the neuron, we propose that an increase in self-binding affinity provides the basis for the successful evolution of the arthropod brain. CONCLUSIONS: Our data presented here provide an excellent model for future experimental studies of the binding behavior of Dscam isoforms. The results of our analysis indicate that evolution favored the rise of novel variable domains thanks to their higher self-binding affinities, rather than selection merely on the basis of simple expansion of isoform diversity, as that this particular selection process would have established the powerful mechanisms required for neuronal self-avoidance. Thus, we reveal here a new molecular mechanism for the successful evolution of arthropod brains.

A compact genome and a tiny brain make Drosophila the prime model to understand the neural substrate of behavior. The neurogenetic efforts to reveal neural circuits underlying Drosophila vision started about half a century ago, and now the field is booming with sophisticated genetic tools, rich behavioral assays, and importantly, a greater number of scientists joining from different backgrounds. This review will briefly cover the structural anatomy of the Drosophila visual system, the animal's visual behaviors, the genes involved in assembling these circuits, the new and powerful techniques, and the challenges ahead for ultimately identifying the general principles of biological computation in the brain.