Institute of Zoology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, People's Republic of China.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2010 Nov;196(11):791-9. doi: 10.1007/s00359-010-0558-9. Epub 2010 Jul 13.
Behavioral and electrophysiological responses of larvae of the polyphagous moth species Helicoverpa armigera to two plant-derived allelochemicals were studied, both in larvae that had been reared on a diet devoid of these compounds and in larvae previously exposed to these compounds. In dual-choice cotton leaf disk and pepper fruit disk arena assays, caterpillars reared on a normal artificial diet were strongly deterred by strychnine and strophanthin-K. However, caterpillars reared on an artificial diet containing strychnine were insensitive to strychnine and strophanthin-K. Similarly, caterpillars reared on an artificial diet containing strophanthin-K were also desensitized to both deterrent chemicals. Electrophysiological tests revealed that the deterrent-sensitive neurons in taste sensilla on the maxillae of caterpillars reared on each deterrent-containing diet displayed reduced sensitivity to the two chemicals compared with the caterpillars reared on normal diets. We conclude that the experience-dependent behavioral plasticity was partly based on the reduced sensitivity of taste receptor neurons and that the desensitization of taste receptor neurons contributed to the cross-habituation to the two chemicals.
研究了多化性鳞翅目昆虫棉铃虫幼虫对两种植物源化感物质的行为和电生理反应，这些幼虫既包括在不含这些化合物的饮食中饲养的幼虫，也包括先前接触过这些化合物的幼虫。在棉花叶圆盘和辣椒果实圆盘双选择竞技场试验中，用正常人工饲料饲养的毛毛虫强烈地被马钱子碱和毒毛旋花子苷 K 所抑制。然而，用含有马钱子碱的人工饲料饲养的毛毛虫对马钱子碱和毒毛旋花子苷 K 不敏感。同样，用含有毒毛旋花子苷 K 的人工饲料饲养的毛毛虫也对这两种有驱避作用的化学物质产生了脱敏作用。电生理测试显示，与用正常饮食饲养的毛毛虫相比，用含有每种驱避剂的饮食饲养的毛毛虫下颚上味觉感器上的驱避敏感神经元对这两种化学物质的敏感性降低。我们的结论是，经验依赖性的行为可塑性部分基于味觉受体神经元的敏感性降低，而味觉受体神经元的脱敏作用导致了对这两种化学物质的交叉习惯化。
