IBBEA   24401
INSTITUTO DE BIODIVERSIDAD Y BIOLOGIA EXPERIMENTAL Y APLICADA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Taste recognition in kissing bugs: from peripheral detection to feeding decisions
Autor/es:
GUTIERREZ, LAURA; MUÑOZ, IGNACIO; PONTES, GINA; MINOLI, SEBASTIAN; BARROZO, ROMINA; CANO, AGUSTINA
Lugar:
Montevideo
Reunión:
Congreso; XII Congress International Society for Neuroethology; 2016
Resumen:
The ability to discriminate between nutritive and harmful food is essential for animals? survival.Though olfaction contributes to find a potential food source from a distance, the taste sense worksas a final control system driving food acceptance or rejection. Rhodnius prolixus uses its tastesystem to examine a potential biting site first, and to assess the quality of ingested food then. Westudied the role of salts and bitter compounds on the whole feeding process of Rhodnius, from siterecognition to ingestion.The feeding performance of Rhodnius was evaluated while salts (NaCl, KCl)or bitter compounds (caffeine, quinine) were added over the biting substrate or in the diet, and theingested volume, electromiograms of the cibarial pump and electrophysiological recordings of tastesensilla were registered. Additionally, the effect of amiloride (specific sodium-receptor blocker) intaste perception was studied. Rhodnius avoided feeding on an appetitive diet when the substratewas spread with high-salt levels or bitter compounds. Antiappetitive responses were also observedfor diets with no-salt, high-salt and bitter compounds. The inhibition for salts was reversed byamiloride treatment. Electromiograms revealed different inhibitory mechanisms for the differentfeeding conditions. The targets of amiloride are taste receptors of the antennae, and probablyinternal epipharyngeal receptors as revealed the ectrophysiological recordings.Our results confirmthe importance of the taste system for a blood-sucking insect, and show the effect of salts and bittermolecules on their feeding decisions. Moreover, amiloride-sensitive salt receptors seem to beinvolved in salt recognition in Rhodnius.