The taste response to ammonia in Drosophila

Ammonia is both a building block and a breakdown product of amino acids and is found widely in the environment. The odor of ammonia is attractive to many insects, including insect vectors of disease. The olfactory response of Drosophila to ammonia has been studied in some detail, but the taste response has received remarkably little attention. Here, we show that ammonia is a taste cue for Drosophila. Nearly all sensilla of the major taste organ of the Drosophila head house a neuron that responds to neutral solutions of ammonia. Ammonia is toxic at high levels to many organisms, and we find that it has a negative valence in two paradigms of taste behavior, one operating over hours and the other over seconds. Physiological and behavioral responses to ammonia depend at least in part on Gr66a+ bitter-sensing taste neurons, which activate a circuit that deters feeding. The Amt transporter, a critical component of olfactory responses to ammonia, is widely expressed in taste neurons but is not required for taste responses. This work establishes ammonia as an ecologically important taste cue in Drosophila, and shows that it can activate circuits that promote opposite behavioral outcomes via different sensory systems.