Riveron Jacob, Boto Tamara, Alcorta Esther
Department of Functional Biology, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
J Insect Physiol. 2009 Oct;55(10):943-51. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2009.06.009. Epub 2009 Jul 4.
Olfaction provides chemical information to an animal about its environment. When environmental conditions change, individuals should be able to adequately maintain function. Temperature may influence olfaction in a double manner, as it modifies the concentrations of gaseous compounds and affects biological processes. Here, we address acclimatization to environmental temperature in the olfactory system of Drosophila melanogaster using heat and cold treatments. Because the consequences of temperature shifts persist for some time after the treatment's end, comparison of olfactory behaviors at the same temperature in treated and untreated flies allows us to infer the biological effects of temperature in olfaction. At intermediate odorant concentrations heat always generates a reduction of olfactory sensitivity, as they would be expected to compensate for the increase of volatiles in the air. Cold produces the opposite effect. These changes are observed in both sexes and in natural populations as well as in standard laboratory stocks. Short applications suffice to cause detectable olfactory perception changes, but even prolonged temperature treatments have only a transitory effect. Together, these results suggest that olfaction in Drosophila underlies acclimatization to environmental temperature. However, sensitivity changes are not immediate and may cause imperfect adjustment of olfactory function for short time periods.
嗅觉为动物提供有关其环境的化学信息。当环境条件发生变化时，个体应能够充分维持功能。温度可能以双重方式影响嗅觉，因为它会改变气态化合物的浓度并影响生物过程。在这里，我们通过热和冷处理来研究黑腹果蝇嗅觉系统对环境温度的适应性。由于温度变化的影响在处理结束后会持续一段时间，因此比较处理过的果蝇和未处理的果蝇在相同温度下的嗅觉行为，使我们能够推断温度对嗅觉的生物学影响。在中等气味浓度下，热总是会导致嗅觉敏感性降低，因为预期它们会补偿空气中挥发性物质的增加。冷则产生相反的效果。在两性、自然种群以及标准实验室种群中均观察到了这些变化。短暂的处理就足以引起可检测到的嗅觉感知变化，但即使是长时间的温度处理也只有短暂的效果。总之，这些结果表明果蝇的嗅觉是对环境温度适应的基础。然而，敏感性变化并非即时发生，可能会在短时间内导致嗅觉功能的调整不完善。
