Duistermars Brian J, Frye Mark A
Commun Integr Biol. 2010 Jan;3(1):60-3. doi: 10.4161/cib.3.1.10076.
Many see fruit flies as an annoyance, invading our homes with a nagging persistence and efficiency. Yet from a scientific perspective, these tiny animals are a wonder of multisensory integration, capable of tracking fragmented odor plumes amidst turbulent winds and constantly varying visual conditions. The peripheral olfactory, mechanosensory, and visual systems of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, have been studied in great detail;1-4 however, the mechanisms by which fly brains integrate information from multiple sensory modalities to facilitate robust odor tracking remain elusive. Our studies on olfactory orientation by flying flies reveal that these animals do not simply follow their "nose"; rather, fruit flies require mechanosensory and visual input to track odors in flight.5,6 Collectively, these results shed light on the neural circuits involved in odor localization by fruit flies in the wild and illuminate the elegant complexity underlying a behavior to which the annoyed and amazed are familiar.
许多人将果蝇视为一种麻烦，它们以令人厌烦的执着和效率侵入我们的家园。然而，从科学的角度来看，这些小动物是多感官整合的奇迹，能够在湍流和不断变化的视觉条件下追踪破碎的气味羽流。果蝇（黑腹果蝇）的外周嗅觉、机械感觉和视觉系统已经得到了详细研究；1-4然而，果蝇大脑整合来自多种感觉模态的信息以促进强大的气味追踪的机制仍然难以捉摸。我们对飞行果蝇嗅觉定向的研究表明，这些动物并非简单地跟随它们的“鼻子”；相反，果蝇在飞行中追踪气味需要机械感觉和视觉输入。5,6总的来说，这些结果揭示了果蝇在野外进行气味定位所涉及的神经回路，并阐明了这种让人们既厌烦又惊叹的行为背后优雅的复杂性。
