What you eat influences your taste for what you might want to eat next. So claims a University of California, Riverside, study performed on fruit flies. The study offers a better understanding of neurophysiological plast city of the taste system in flies. To maintain ideal health, animals require a balanced diet with optimum am unts of different nutrients. Macronutrients like carbohydrates and proteins are essential; indeed, an unbalan ed intake of these nutrients can be detrimental to health. Flies require macronutrients such as sugars and mino acids for survival. They use the gustatory system, the sensory system responsible for the perception of taste, to sense these nutrients and begin feeding.
In their experiments in the lab, the researchers Anindya Ganguly and Manali Dey, led by Anupama Dahanukar, fed adult flies different diets: a balanced diet, a sugar-reduced and protein-enriched diet, and a sugar enriched and proteindepleted diet. They ensured that all three diets were similar in total calorie content and ested the flies daily for a week to examine modifications in their food choice and taste sensitivity. The resea chers report that diet affects dopamine and insulin signaling in the brain, which, in turn, affects the flies’ per pheral sensory response, which is comprised of neurons directly involved in detecting external stimuli. This esponse then influences what the flies eat next.
Which of the following statements about the study are true?
A) What you eat has little to do with what you want to eat next.
B) An unbalanced intake of macronutrients such as carbohydrates and protein is essential.
C) The fly senses macronutrients through its taste system.
D) In the experiment, the researchers made sure the total calories in all three diets were the same.
E) The researchers tested the flies every two days for a week.
F) Dopamine in the brain is closely related to diet.
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