There are at least two possible molecular mechanisms through which localization of OBP49a at the cell surface of sugar-responsive GRNs inhibits these neurons. OBP49a binds directly to bitter compounds and either interacts with or lies in close proximity to the sucrose receptor PD0332991 price GR64a. According to one possibility, OBP49a might deliver bitter chemicals to the cell surface of sugar-activated GRs, thereby greatly increasing the

local concentration of bitter chemicals. The bitter chemicals might then bind to sugar-activated GRs, causing them to change from a high-affinity state to a low-affinity state for sugars. Alternatively, the bitter chemicals might not bind directly to sugar-activated GRs, even at very high concentrations. Rather, once bound to bitter tastants, OBP49a might undergo a conformational change that in turn inhibits the GR64a complex. Since GRs may be cation channels (Sato et al., 2011), OBP49a might provide insects a mechanism by which bitter compounds suppress sugar-activated cation conductances. All fly stocks were maintained

on conventional cornmeal-agar-molasses medium under 12 hr light/12 hr dark cycles at 25°C and 60% humidity. 70FLP,70I-SceI/CyO, Sco/CyO,P[w+,Cre], UAS-mCD8::GFP flies were obtained from the Bloomington Small molecule library concentration Stock Center. Gr5a-GAL4 and Gr66a-I-GFP were provided by K. Scott. ASE5-GFP, nompA-GAL4, and UAS-SNMP1-YFP(2) were provided by J.W. Posakony, Y.D. Chung, and L. Vosshall, respectively. To generate pw35loxPGAL4, we modified the pw35GAL4 vector ( Moon et al., 2009). We inserted loxP oligonucleotides into the NotI and Acc65I sites. Each oligonucleotide also included portions of the NotI and Acc65I sites so that these two restriction sites were preserved. The loxP sequences were in the same orientation so that we could remove the floxed mini-white and the GAL4 coding sequences after genetically introducing the Cre recombinase. To generate the Obp19b1, Obp49a1, and Obp56g1 alleles, we PCR amplified 3 kb genomic DNAs encompassing

both the Org 27569 5′ and 3′ ends of the Obp coding sequences from isogenic w1118 flies. The genomic fragments were selected to introduce deletions of 930, 759, and 465 bp, respectively. To produce the OBP57c1 allele, we PCR amplified from isogenic w1118 flies a 3 kb genomic DNA extending from the 5′ end of the start codon, and a 3 kb genomic DNA extending from the 3′ side of the start codon. This latter DNA included a stop codon at codon position one. Each homologous arm was subcloned into the pw35loxPGAL4 vector. The transgenic flies were generated by first obtaining random insertions of the transgenes (BestGene) and then by mobilizing the transgenes and screening for targeted insertions as described previously ( Gong and Golic, 2003). Each Obp mutation was confirmed by genomic PCR.