Abstract
In the Drosophila wing anterior margin, the dendrites of gustatory neurons occupy the interior of thin and long bristles that present tiny pores at their extremities. Many attempts to measure ligand-evoked currents in insect wing gustatory neurons have been unsuccessful for technical reasons. The functions of this gustatory activity therefore remain elusive and controversial. To advance our knowledge on this understudied tissue, we investigated the architecture of the wing chemosensory bristles and wing trachea using Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. We hypothesized that the wing gustatory hair, an open-ended capillary tube, and the wing trachea constitute biological systems similar to nano-porous materials. We present evidence that argues in favour of the existence of a layer or a bubble of air beneath the pore inside the gustatory hair. We demonstrate that these hollow hairs and wing tracheal tubes fulfil conditions for which the physics of fluids applied to open-ended capillaries and porous materials are relevant. We also document that the wing gustatory hair and tracheal architectures are capable of trapping volatile molecules from the environment, which might increase the efficiency of their spatial detection by way of wing vibrations or during flight.
Highlights
Until now, little has been reported regarding the physiology of neurosensory cells in the insect wing
This does not apply to the neurons that are sheltered in the contractile proboscis or in the legs, for which many electrophysiology data have been reported[12]
We investigated the process through which volatile molecules found in nature such as ethanol, organic acids or hydrophilic molecules dissolved in water microdroplets enter and condense inside the chemosensory hair space of the Drosophila wing
Summary
Little has been reported regarding the physiology of neurosensory cells in the insect wing. If we assume that the vibrational component of the insect wing is part of the process of wing chemodetection, the air vortex created by the flapping wings is likely required to facilitate the accessibility of environmental compounds to the wing neuronal receptors In such a case, a partially air-filled bristle would be a more efficient system to trap environmental molecules such as volatile compounds and/or hydrophilic molecules solubilized in water microdroplets than a hair filled with lymph up to its extremity. We investigated the process through which volatile molecules found in nature such as ethanol, organic acids (propionic and acetic acids) or hydrophilic molecules dissolved in water microdroplets enter and condense inside the chemosensory hair space of the Drosophila wing This should apply to the overall network of air-filled tubes that constitutes the tracheal system. These elements suggest that the wing gustatory sensilla might obtain environmental information from both the tracheal pipes and the hollow hairs with an opened pore at their extremity
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