In order to survive in a harsh environment, animals need to find the palatable food and avoid consuming toxic chemicals. Fruit flies use dedicated taste sensory neurons, which are widely distributed in peripheral tissues, to detect and evaluate the food. 

This study shows that a GABAergic neuroblast lineage, TRdm, connects with the neurites of taste sensory neurons in the brain. Sugar and bitter stimulation of the labellum, the major taste organ, activates the TRdm neurons. Genetically silencing of these neurons increases sugar sensitivity, while on the other hand, decreases bitter sensitivity. 

This study provides insights to understand the taste neural circuitry. This also paves the way to find more interneuron lineages that receive sensory inputs and modulates taste sensation and food consumption.  

The study is published in the scientific journal Current Biology

The image shows an adult fruit fly brain stained with anti-Brp (blue). A subset of GABAergic TRdm neurons are shown in red.