PLoS Biology (Jun 2014)

Selection of motor programs for suppressing food intake and inducing locomotion in the Drosophila brain.

  • Andreas Schoofs,
  • Sebastian Hückesfeld,
  • Philipp Schlegel,
  • Anton Miroschnikow,
  • Marc Peters,
  • Malou Zeymer,
  • Roland Spieß,
  • Ann-Shyn Chiang,
  • Michael J Pankratz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001893
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 6
p. e1001893

Abstract

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Central mechanisms by which specific motor programs are selected to achieve meaningful behaviors are not well understood. Using electrophysiological recordings from pharyngeal nerves upon central activation of neurotransmitter-expressing cells, we show that distinct neuronal ensembles can regulate different feeding motor programs. In behavioral and electrophysiological experiments, activation of 20 neurons in the brain expressing the neuropeptide hugin, a homolog of mammalian neuromedin U, simultaneously suppressed the motor program for food intake while inducing the motor program for locomotion. Decreasing hugin neuropeptide levels in the neurons by RNAi prevented this action. Reducing the level of hugin neuronal activity alone did not have any effect on feeding or locomotion motor programs. Furthermore, use of promoter-specific constructs that labeled subsets of hugin neurons demonstrated that initiation of locomotion can be separated from modulation of its motor pattern. These results provide insights into a neural mechanism of how opposing motor programs can be selected in order to coordinate feeding and locomotive behaviors.