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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Cell. Neurosci.
Sec. Cellular Neurophysiology
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fncel.2024.1347460

The Impacts of Hypertonic Conditions on Drosophila Larval Cool Cells

Provisionally accepted
Hua Bai Hua Bai 1Trisha Naidu Trisha Naidu 1James B. Anderson James B. Anderson 1Hector Montemayor Hector Montemayor 2Camie Do Camie Do 2Lina Ni Lina Ni 1*
  • 1 College of Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States
  • 2 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Drosophila melanogaster exhibits multiple highly sophisticated temperature-sensing systems, enabling its effective response and navigation to temperature changes. Previous research has identified three dorsal organ cool cells (DOCCs) in fly larvae, consisting of two A-type and one B-type cell with distinct calcium dynamics. When subjected to hypertonic conditions, calcium imaging shows that Atype DOCCs maintain their responses to cool temperatures. In contrast, a subset of B-type DOCCs does not exhibit detectable GCaMP baseline signals, and the remaining detectable B-type DOCCs exhibit reduced temperature responses. The activation of both A-type and B-type DOCCs depends on the same members of the ionotropic receptor (IR) family: IR21a, IR93a, and IR25a. A-type DOCCs exhibit a higher somal level of IR93a than B-type DOCCs. Overexpression of Ir93a restores B-type calcium responses to cool temperatures, but not the proportion of B-type cells with a detectable GCaMP baseline, in a hypertonic environment, suggesting a selective role of IR93a in maintaining the temperature responses under hypertonic conditions. Our findings identify a novel function of B-type DOCCs in integrating temperature and tonic stimuli.

    Keywords: Drosophila larvae, dorsal organ cool cells, ionotropic receptors, Temperature responses, hypertonicity

    Received: 30 Nov 2023; Accepted: 04 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bai, Naidu, Anderson, Montemayor, Do and Ni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lina Ni, College of Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, 24061, Virginia, United States

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