PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

The sweet stuff: How insects tell sugars apart

2024-03-06
(Press-News.org) New Haven, Conn. — Whereas humans have one receptor on their tongues that can detect all sorts of sweet things, from real sugar to artificial sweeteners like aspartame, insects have many receptors that each detect specific types of sugars. Yale researchers have now uncovered one way insect receptors are able to be so selective, an insight they say will help us understand how animals decipher the chemical world and how we might mimic that ability in the future.

They reported their findings in a study published March 6 in Nature.

Sugar is important to animals and humans alike, says Joel Butterwick, assistant professor of pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study.

“We all taste sugar. It’s a major source of energy for just about every animal,” said Butterwick. 

The ability to taste sugar is also essential for identifying necessary nutrients and generating a pleasurable feeling that becomes paired with nourishment. Different than mammals, insects also rely on their taste system to detect mating partners and identify the best places to deposit their eggs.

But just how insects detect specific sugars — differentiating between molecules that look quite similar to each other but that have subtle differences — has remained unclear. To better understand the sensitivity of insect taste receptors, Butterwick and his research team focused on one receptor that is so selective it responds to only one type of sugar — D-fructose. The receptor is one found in the mouths and brains of silk moths. As a ligand-gated receptor, it becomes activated only after its ligand — the molecule that’s able to bind to it — attaches. 

Unexpectedly, even though D-fructose is the only sugar that activates this receptor, the researchers found that several other sugars bind to it, the researchers said.

“That told us that the area where these sugars attach, the binding pocket, isn’t the only thing determining activation,” said Butterwick. “There had to be some other explanation. So we wanted to look at the receptor at atomic scale to see in detail how the sugar and receptor were interacting.”

The team mapped the structure of the receptor alone as well as the receptor bound to D-fructose. They observed that D-fructose was nestled into the binding pocket and initiated a shape change that activated the receptor. 

They then mapped the structure of the receptor when it was bound to a sugar extremely similar to D-fructose. While that sugar, L-sorbose, did appear to bind to the receptor just as well as D-fructose, it didn’t change the receptor’s shape, leaving the receptor inactive. The difference between the two sugars turned out not to be how they attached to the binding pocket, but how they interacted with a molecular bridge that connects the binding pocket to a different part of the receptor. 

In short, D-fructose was able to engage that bridge and initiate the shape change, and L-sorbose was not.

“What we think is interesting about that is that there are interactions happening outside of the pocket that act as a mechanism of selection,” said Butterwick. “And evolution likely works on both aspects. For example, a less specific receptor than this one maybe binds more molecules or maybe its bridge is easier to activate. With multiple aspects to act upon, there are more ways for evolution to fine-tune these receptors.”

Uncovering the mechanisms that underlie how receptors recognize various substances will help researchers understand how smell and taste enable humans and animals to decipher the chemical world, says Butterwick.

It could also inform the development of biosensors, he added. Some dogs can smell diseases like cancer or Parkinson’s disease. Knowing how smell and taste receptors differentiate substances would aid the development of “electronic noses” that could sniff out disease.

“People are already trying to do this. And while there have been a few successes, there have been more failures,” said Butterwick. “Our work here may help explain why it has been challenging. It’s not just about binding the molecule of interest. How the receptor activates is also essential.”

Going forward, the researchers want to explore the pharmacological potential of these receptors.

“There have been countless cases throughout history where a solved atomic structure paved the way to major discoveries,” said João Victor Gomes, a graduate student in Butterwick’s lab and lead author of the study. Gomes is from Brazil, which is currently facing a severe dengue surge, with more than one million cases of the mosquito-borne disease registered this year alone.

“If we can modulate receptors that affect the feeding behavior of insects,” he said, “perhaps we could develop better strategies against disease-transmitting mosquitoes.”

 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

What are Hubble and Webb observing right now? NASA tool has the answer

What are Hubble and Webb observing right now? NASA tool has the answer
2024-03-06
It’s not hard to find out what NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have observed in the past. Barely a week goes by without news of a cosmic discovery made possible using images, spectra, and other data captured by NASA’s prolific astronomical observatories.  But what are Hubble and Webb looking at right this minute? A shadowy pillar harboring nascent stars? A pair of colliding galaxies? The atmosphere of a distant planet? Galactic light, stretched and distorted on a 13-billion-year journey across ...

Medical malpractice incidents are more severe during daylight saving time

2024-03-06
DARIEN, IL – Medical malpractice incidents are more severe during the months of the year when daylight saving time is observed in the U.S., according to a new study that examined three decades of malpractice claims. Results show that both medical malpractice incident severity and payment decisions were higher during the months of daylight saving time compared with the months of standard time, after controlling for whether states observe daylight saving time. Payment decisions also were higher, but medical incidents were not more severe, during the one week following the spring transition to daylight saving time. “The spring daylight saving shift ...

Airflow dynamics scrub classroom air

2024-03-06
If you’ve ever wondered why some folks never catch the office or school cold, where they’re sitting might be keeping them from the path of pathogens, according to new UBC Okanagan research. Using a working UBCO classroom as their test lab, the team found that accounting for airflow dynamics reduced pathogens in the classroom by 85 per cent. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, the advice was often just to increase ventilation to the maximum,” says Mojtaba Zabihi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering ...

New product development shapes firms and the economy

2024-03-06
Understanding product life cycles plays an important role in the innovation arms race, helping to define firm growth and market competition. Products experience a substantial decline in sales after an initial period of growth, a trend that is consistent across various industries and product types. “By examining the life cycle of a wide cross-section of products, we can see the role product performance plays in shaping firm and economic growth,” said Munseob Lee, assistant professor of economics at the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy ...

People with essential tremor may have increased risk of dementia

2024-03-06
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Dementia may be three times more common among people with essential tremor, a movement disorder that causes involuntary shaking, than the general population, according to research released today, March 6, 2024. The study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 76th Annual Meeting taking place April 13–18, 2024, in person in Denver and online. Essential tremor is the most common tremor disorder, more common than Parkinson’s disease. In addition to arm and ...

Black people half as likely to be evaluated for genetic testing as white people

2024-03-06
MINNEAPOLIS – Genetic testing has become a more common way to diagnose and manage many neurologic conditions including dementia, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, but a new study has found not everyone may have the same level of access to these tests. Black people were half as likely as white people to be evaluated for genetic testing, according to a study published in the March 6, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Genetic testing is crucial for identifying neurologic conditions and has potential to impact treatment and management of symptoms,” said study author Colin A. Ellis, ...

Does stroke risk linked to sleep apnea vary by race?

2024-03-06
MINNEAPOLIS – The risk of stroke tied to sleep apnea may vary for Black people and white people, according to a study published in the March 6, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that white people diagnosed with sleep apnea, whether or not they used a continuous positive airway pressure machine (CPAP), were at increased risk for stroke. White people who were at high risk for sleep apnea but had not been diagnosed with the condition were also at increased risk for stroke. The study did not find an ...

Research reveals novel herpesvirus in South American pinnipeds

2024-03-06
New research today uncovers an important discovery in the study of marine mammal health by being the first study to detect Otariid gammaherpesvirus 1 (OtGHV1) in free-ranging South American pinnipeds, as well as a novel herpesvirus Otariid gammaherpesvirus 8 (OtGHV8) in South American sea lions (Otaria byronia) in the Southern Hemisphere. These findings shed new light on the spread and variety of these types of viruses among pinnipeds and underscore the importance of continued research into the impact these emerging, infectious pathogens have on animal health and ecosystem dynamics in this and similar aquatic systems. Veterinarians and researchers at Brookfield Zoo ...

Study: Vaccinated people had lower risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes

2024-03-06
Study: Vaccinated people had lower risk of severe outcomesAmong people who had COVID-19, those who previously received the latest vaccine had a lower risk of having a severe outcome than those who had not, according to new Cleveland Clinic research published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. Coupled with antiviral treatments such as nirmatrelvir and molnupiravir, updated versions of Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines significantly lowered the likelihood of hospitalization and death from currently ...

Researchers evaluate accuracy of online health news using easily accessible AI

2024-03-06
DURHAM, N.H.—It can be challenging to gauge the quality of online news—questioning if it is real or if it is fake. When it comes to health news and press releases about medical treatments and procedures the issue can be even more complex, especially if the story is not complete and still doesn’t necessarily fall into the category of fake news. To help identify the stories with inflated claims, inaccuracies and possible associated risks, researchers at the University of New Hampshire developed a new machine learning model, an application of artificial intelligence, that news services, like social media outlets, could easily use to better screen ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Designing a sulfur vacancy redox disruptor for photothermoelectric and cascade‑catalytic‑driven cuproptosis–ferroptosis–apoptosis therapy

Recent advances in dynamic biomacromolecular modifications and chemical interventions: Perspective from a Chinese chemical biology consortium

CRF and the Jon DeHaan Foundation to launch TCT AI Lab at TCT 2025

Canada’s fastest academic supercomputer is now online at SFU after $80m upgrades

Architecture’s past holds the key to sustainable future

Laser correction for short-sightedness is safe and effective for older teenagers

About one in five people taking Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro say food tastes saltier or sweeter than before

Taking semaglutide turns down food noise, research suggests

Type 2 diabetes may double risk of sepsis, large community-based study suggests

New quantum sensors can withstand extreme pressure

Tirzepatide more cost-effective than semaglutide in patients with knee osteoarthritis and obesity

GLP-1 drugs shown cost-effective for knee osteoarthritis and obesity

Interactive apps, AI chatbots promote playfulness, reduce privacy concerns

How NIL boosts college football’s competitive balance

Moffitt researchers develop machine learning model to predict urgent care visits for lung cancer patients

Construction secrets of honeybees: Study reveals how bees build hives in tricky spots

Wheat disease losses total $2.9 billion across the United States and Canada between 2018 and 2021

New funding fuels development of first potentially regenerative treatment for multiple sclerosis

NJIT student–faculty team wins best presentation award for ant swarm simulation

Ants defend plants from herbivores but can hinder pollination

When the wireless data runs dry

Inquiry into the history of science shows an early “inherence” bias

Picky eaters endure: Ecologists use DNA to explore diet breadth of wild herbivores

Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time

Increasing the level of the protein PI31 demonstrates neuroprotective effects in mice

Multi-energy X-ray curved surface imaging-with multi-layer in-situ grown scintillators

Metasurface enables compact and high-sensitivity atomic magnetometer

PFAS presence confirmed in the blood of children in Gipuzkoa

Why do people believe lies?

SwRI installs private 5G network for research, development, testing and evaluation

[Press-News.org] The sweet stuff: How insects tell sugars apart