OSCR

Larval taste exposure creates compound-specific behavioral modifications in adult <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>.

Overview

Authors: Vaibhav D. Menon1,2, Christopher Creighton1,2, Mayra Vazquez-Muñoz3, Anupama Dahanukar1,2
ORCID iDs: Vaibhav D. Menon, Anupama Dahanukar
  1. Department of Molecular, Cell & Systems Biology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
  2. Interdepartmental Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
  3. Division of Biomedical Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Institutions: University of California, Riverside (United States)
Journal: iScience, volume 29, issue 9, article 117467
Dates: received 27 August 2025; accepted 21 August 2026; published online 8 September 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117467 · PMID 42741681 · PMCID PMC13573713 · OpenAlex W7203673378
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request
Categories: drosophila (organism), developmental (subfield)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Statistics
Keywords: neuroscience, Drosophila, taste, chemosensation, gustatory receptor, critical period, bitter taste, prior experience
Topic: Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: University of California; Agricultural Experimental Station; USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture; United States Department of Agriculture (1011543); Department of Education’s Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need; University of California, Riverside
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 72 references in the paper
Research resources: Prism 11 RRID:SCR_002798, Illustrator RRID:SCR_010279, BioRender RRID:SCR_018361

Abstract

An animal’s ability to taste is critical for nutrient selection and rejection of potentially toxic substances. Factors such as age, diet, environment, and internal state can also influence food-related behavioral outcomes. One such factor—exposure to taste cues during early development—remains poorly understood. Here, we evaluate how larval taste input affects adult feeding preference in Drosophila melanogaster. We find that larval dietary exposure to papaverine, a bitter alkaloid, attenuates feeding avoidance of papaverine in adult flies. This behavioral modification appears compound specific, occurring with papaverine but not with other bitter chemicals tested, and selective, with feeding preferences for other bitter tastants unaffected. We identify contributions of larval bitter taste function, taste projection populations, and the cyclic AMP (cAMP)-phosphodiesterase dunce in supporting this behavioral modification. Together, our findings suggest that developmental experiences with bitter compounds can change taste-mediated behaviors through defined sensory and neural circuit components.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

Data and code availability

• All original data have been deposited at Mendeley Data and are publicly available at Mendeley Data: https://doi.org/10.17632/7sxh6df8pr.1. Fly stock and chemical identifiers are included in the key resources table. • The paper does not report original code. • Any additional information required to reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 3, 28 September 2026

  • Authors: added Anupama Dahanukar (0000-0003-0534-7700); removed Anupama Dahanukar

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 4 authors, 8 keywords, 6 funders, 71 references, 3 RRIDs.

Cite

This paper

Menon, V. D., Creighton, C., Vazquez-Muñoz, M., & Dahanukar, A. (2026). Larval taste exposure creates compound-specific behavioral modifications in adult <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>. iScience, 29(9), 117467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.117467

BibTeX

@article{menon2026larval,
author = {Menon, Vaibhav D. and Creighton, Christopher and Vazquez-Muñoz, Mayra and Dahanukar, Anupama},
title = {{Larval taste exposure creates compound-specific behavioral modifications in adult \<i\>Drosophila melanogaster\</i\>}},
journal = {iScience},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
volume = {29},
number = {9},
pages = {117467},
publisher = {Elsevier},
issn = {2589-0042},
doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2026.117467},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.117467},
pmid = {42741681},
pmcid = {PMC13573713}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Menon, Vaibhav D.
AU - Creighton, Christopher
AU - Vazquez-Muñoz, Mayra
AU - Dahanukar, Anupama
TI - Larval taste exposure creates compound-specific behavioral modifications in adult <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>
T2 - iScience
J2 - iScience
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
VL - 29
IS - 9
SP - 117467
SN - 2589-0042
PB - Elsevier
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117467
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.117467
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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