Cockroaches Now Evading Death by Getting Bitter about Sweeteners.

Here, I review the article "Changes in taste neurons support an adaptive behavior in cockroaches" by Wada-Katsumata et al. (2013). Their article elucidates the mechanism by which some cockroaches avoid eating poisoned bait: a change in the response properties of cells that transduce the tastant glucose and related sugars. Specifically, the data show that in cockroaches that avoid glucose consumption, these sugars activate the gustatory neurons that detect the presence of bitter compounds. This finding was replicated in cockroaches from several distinct populations. The article is brief but compelling. It serves as an excellent teaching tool for the topics of taste perception, neural mechanisms of behavior, and the rapid evolutionary response in terms of an adaptation of a sensory system to changing environmental conditions. Moreover, it could serve as a point of departure for a variety of in-class discussion topics.