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Literally nothing I love more than examining neuronal circuits as signal integrators. The @mnitabach lab shows feeding-state-dependent taste-experience alteration of FSB activity. Signal integration ahoy! 
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.14.251553v1
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.14.251553v1
I often wonder if Drosophila behavioral assays are *rich* enough to take full advantage. The Nitabach lab does not disappoint. They implement a sweet vs. bittersweet taste preference assay in flies deprived of food for varying lengths of time.
Finding: Equal preference point for sweet vs bittersweet when bittersweet food has 10X [sucrose]. Time for a classic Gal4 screen with an opto twist to find molecular players in this preference point!
Several hits including fan shaped body layer 6 (FBl6), some dopaminergic neurons and 
neuropeptides! AstA, DH44 and LK which are all implicated in aspects of feeding.
neuropeptides! AstA, DH44 and LK which are all implicated in aspects of feeding.
They then used a "chemoconnectomics" (sorry, that sounds like a made up word) RNAi approach to look at how all these hits may be interconnected and identified FBl6 as a signal integrating convergence node.
Calcium imaging in FBl6 after preference assays in naive and restricted flies showed that suppression of FBl6 activity is the neural representation of behavioral food choice.
The chemoconnectomics data sets the stage for further dissection of how different aspects of food related decision making are encoded by different signals and integrated within FBl6. Fingers crossed to see some beautiful ephys?
