Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40174584›Full record

ArticleCurrent biology : CB2025

Sensation of electric fields in the Drosophila melanogaster larva.

David Tadres, Julia Riedl, Alexander Eden, Angela E Bontempo, Jingtong Lin, Samuel F Reid, Brian Roehrich, Kevin Williams, Lior Sepunaru, Matthieu Louis

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Current biology : CB, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. The Sensory Basis of Planarian Behavior.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

David TadresUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, MCDB Department & Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI), Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Julia RiedlCentre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002 Barcelona, Spain.
Alexander EdenUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, Mechanical Engineering Department, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Angela E BontempoUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, MCDB Department & Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI), Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Jingtong LinUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, MCDB Department & Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI), Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Samuel F ReidCentre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Brian RoehrichUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Kevin WilliamsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, MCDB Department & Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI), Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Lior SepunaruUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Matthieu LouisUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, MCDB Department & Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI), Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: mlouis@ucsb.edu.

Funding

Lineage-associated wiring properties of Drosphila brain neuronsR01NS054814 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI HARTENSTEIN, VOLKER, LOUIS, MATTHIEU R. P. J. C. G. · 2006 to 2025
$6.6M
Characterizing the noise resilience of larval chemotaxis with virtual olfactory realitiesR01NS113048 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA · PI LOUIS, MATTHIEU R. P. J. C. G. · 2019 to 2024
$2.1M
NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS054814NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS113048
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Electrosensation has emerged as a crucial sensory modality for social communication, foraging, and predation across the animal kingdom. However, its presence and functional role as well as the neural basis of electric field perception in Drosophila and other invertebrates remain unclear. In environments with controlled electric fields, we identified electrosensation as a new sense in the Drosophila melanogaster larva. We found that the Drosophila larva performs robust electrotaxis: when exposed to a uniform electric field, larvae migrate toward the cathode (negatively charged elecrode) and quickly respond to changes in the orientation of the field to maintain cathodal movement. Through a behavioral screen, we identified a subset of sensory neurons located at the tip of the larval head that are necessary for electrotaxis. Calcium imaging revealed that a pair of Gr66a-positive sensory neurons (one on each side of the head) encodes the strength and orientation of the electric field. Our results indicate that electric fields elicit robust behavioral and neural responses in the Drosophila larva, providing new evidence for the significance of electrosensation in invertebrates.

Indexed as

Drosophila melanogasterTaxis ResponseAnimalsLarvaSensory Receptor CellsDrosophila larvaelectrosensationelectrotaxisgalvanotaxisGr33aGr66agustatory neuronssensory navigationsensory neuroscience

Identifiers

PMID40174584
PMCPMC12040295

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.