ArticlePLoS biology2009
Plant insecticide L-canavanine repels Drosophila via the insect orphan GPCR DmX.
Article in PLoS biology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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33 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- A bitter receptor links chemical detection to adaptive foraging avoidance in fire ants.Pest management science · 2026Article
- Taurine-driven chemotaxis and metamorphosis in ascidian tadpole larvae.Science advances · 2026Article
- Plant Defense Responses to Insect Herbivores Through Molecular Signaling, Secondary Metabolites, and Associated Epigenetic Regulation.Plant-environment interactions (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Review
- AInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Effects of Allelopathic Compounds Identified inMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Canavanine utilizationRSC chemical biology · 2022Article
- Plant Responses to Herbivory, Wounding, and Infection.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Article
- Genomic Signatures of Recent Adaptation in a Wild Bumblebee.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Review
- L-Canavanine, a Root Exudate From Hairy Vetch (Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Multiple channels of DEET repellency in Drosophila.Pest management science · 2020Article
- Variation Between ThreeFrontiers in plant science · 2020Article
- Food-derived volatiles enhance consumption inThe Journal of experimental biology · 2019Article
- Ocular Albinism Type 1 Regulates Deltamethrin Tolerance inFrontiers in physiology · 2019Article
- A conserved odorant binding protein is required for essential amino acid detection in Drosophila.Communications biology · 2019Article
- NYD-OP7/PLC regulatory signaling pathway regulates deltamethrin resistance in Culex pipiens pallens (Diptera: Culicidae).Parasites & vectors · 2018Article
- UsingFrontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2018Review
- Dual mechanism for bitter avoidance in Drosophila.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2015Article
- Role of G-protein-coupled receptor-related genes in insecticide resistance of the mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus.Scientific reports · 2014Article
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6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
For all animals, the taste sense is crucial to detect and avoid ingesting toxic molecules. Many toxins are synthesized by plants as a defense mechanism against insect predation. One example of such a natural toxic molecule is L-canavanine, a nonprotein amino acid found in the seeds of many legumes. Whether and how insects are informed that some plants contain L-canavanine remains to be elucidated. In insects, the taste sense relies on gustatory receptors forming the gustatory receptor (Gr) family. Gr proteins display highly divergent sequences, suggesting that they could cover the entire range of tastants. However, one cannot exclude the possibility of evolutionarily independent taste receptors. Here, we show that L-canavanine is not only toxic, but is also a repellent for Drosophila. Using a pharmacogenetic approach, we find that flies sense food containing this poison by the DmX receptor. DmXR is an insect orphan G-protein-coupled receptor that has partially diverged in its ligand binding pocket from the metabotropic glutamate receptor family. Blockade of DmXR function with an antagonist lowers the repulsive effect of L-canavanine. In addition, disruption of the DmXR encoding gene, called mangetout (mtt), suppresses the L-canavanine repellent effect. To avoid the ingestion of L-canavanine, DmXR expression is required in bitter-sensitive gustatory receptor neurons, where it triggers the premature retraction of the proboscis, thus leading to the end of food searching. These findings show that the DmX receptor, which does not belong to the Gr family, fulfills a gustatory function necessary to avoid eating a natural toxin.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.