美国洛克菲勒大学Vanessa Ruta课题组开发出果蝇嗅觉导航的矢量策略。相关论文于2026年7月22日发表在《自然》杂志上。

在这里，研究组开发了一种虚拟现实的嗅觉模式，允许头部固定的果蝇探索结构化的化学景观，为记忆机制如何塑造它们的导航策略提供洞见。该研究团队发现，苍蝇通过沿着通道的边界来追踪它们的食欲通道，在快速反向旋转以退出羽流和直接返回边缘之间交替进行。结合使用行为建模、功能钙成像和神经扰动，该课题组表明这种“边缘跟踪”策略依赖于果蝇中央复合体内基于矢量的计算，其中苍蝇存储和动态更新方向的记忆以返回羽流的边界。与此一致的是，研究人员发现扇形身体内的FC2神经元编码了苍蝇的导航目标，当苍蝇在羽毛外时，FC2神经元会向它们的边界发出信号。羽流追踪涉及到一个保守的导航工具包的组成部分，在这个工具包中，苍蝇可以主题定向记忆，以在复杂和变化的化学景观中导航。

据介绍，对许多物种来说，声音是关键的导航线索。尽管追踪气味羽流已被建模为一个反射过程，但尚不清楚动物是否能够以它们过去遇到的气味为主题的记忆来推断它们所处化学环境的空间结构或它们在其中的位置。

附：英文原文

Title: A vector-based strategy for olfactory navigation in Drosophila

Author: Siliciano, Andrew F., Minni, Sun, Morton, Chad, Dowell, Charles K., Eghbali, Noelle B., Busch, Silas E., Rhee, Juliana Y., Abbott, L. F., Ruta, Vanessa

Issue&Volume: 2026-07-22

Abstract: For many species, odours serve as key navigational cues1,2. Although tracking an odour plume has been modelled as a reflexive process3,4,5, it remains unclear whether animals can use memories of their past odour encounters to infer the spatial structure of their chemical environment or their location within it. Here we developed a virtual-reality olfactory paradigm that allows head-fixed Drosophila to explore structured chemical landscapes, offering insight into how memory mechanisms shape their navigational strategies. We found that flies track an appetitive odour corridor by following its boundary, alternating between rapid counter-turns to exit the plume and directed returns to its edge. Using a combination of behavioural modelling, functional calcium imaging and neural perturbations, we show that this ‘edge tracking’ strategy relies on vector-based computations within the Drosophila central complex, in which flies store and dynamically update memories of the direction to return to the plume’s boundary. Consistent with this, we find that FC2 neurons within the fan-shaped body, which encode a fly’s navigational goal6, signal the direction back to the odour boundary when flies are outside the plume. Plume tracking thus engages components of a conserved navigational toolkit, in which flies can use directional memories to navigate through complex and shifting chemical landscapes.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10827-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10827-7

期刊信息

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504

官方网址：http://www.nature.com/

投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html