Light Activation of an Innate Olfactory Avoidance Response in Drosophila

How specific sensory stimuli evoke specific behaviors is a fundamental problem in neurobiology. In Drosophila, most odorants elicit attraction or avoidance depending on their concentration, as well as their identity [1]. Such odorants, moreover, typically activate combinations of glomeruli in the antennal lobe of the brain [2-4], complicating the dissection of the circuits translating odor recognition into behavior. Carbon dioxide (CO₂), in contrast, elicits avoidance over a wide range of concentrations [5, 6] and activates only a single glomerulus, V [5]. The V glomerulus receives projections from olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) that coexpress two GPCRs, Gr21a and Gr63a, that together comprise a CO₂ receptor [7-9]. These CO₂-sensitive ORNs, located in the ab1 sensilla of the antenna, are called ab1c neurons [10]. Genetic silencing of ab1c neurons indicates that they are necessary for CO₂-avoidance behavior [5]. Whether activation of these neurons alone is sufficient to elicit this behavior, or whether CO₂ avoidance requires additional inputs (e.g., from the respiratory system), remains unclear. Here, we show that artificial stimulation of ab1c neurons with light (normally attractive to flies) elicits the avoidance behavior typical of CO₂. Thus, avoidance behavior appears hardwired into the olfactory circuitry that detects CO₂ in Drosophila.