Fig. 3: Food signals requires the AWC, NSM, and CEP neurons.

Images (a) and quantification (b) of fmo-2p::mCherry in a WT (control) and AWC genetic ablation background on fed (pink), DR (blue), or DR exposed to food smell (purple). Scale bar, 1 mm. n = 36 (WT fed), 40 (WT DR), 28 (WT DR + food smell), 41 (AWC(-) fed), 40 (AWC(-) DR), 38 (AWC(-) DR + food smell) biologically independent animals. p-value = 0.0203 (WT DR vs. WT DR + food smell), 0.926 (AWC(-) DR vs AWC(-) DR + food smell). Survival curves (c) of WT animals (black) and tph-1 KO animals on fed (pink) and DR (purple) conditions exposed to food smell (dotted lines). Images (d) and quantification (e) of fmo-2p::mCherry exposed to tph-1 RNAi on fed (blue) or DR (pink). Scale bar, 1 mm. n = 12 (vector fed), 9 (vector DR), 10 (tph-1 fed), 11 (tph-1 DR) biologically independent animals. p-value = 5.87e-10 (vector fed vs. vector DR), 0.108 (vector fed vs. tph-1 fed), 0.221 (vector fed vs. tph-1 DR). Survival curves (f) comparing control (black), tph-1 KO (pink), and tph-1 NSM-specific rescue (purple) animals on fed (solid line) and DR (dotted lines). Control (black) survival curve is also displayed in Supplementary Fig. 5F. Data in f and Supplementary Fig. 5f were acquired concurrently. Images (g) and quantification (h) of fmo-2p::mCherry in a WT (control) and del-3 KO background on fed (blue) and DR (pink) exposed to food smell (purple and orange, respectively). Scale bar, 1 mm. n = 11 (WT fed), 13 (WT fed + food smell), 13 (WT DR), 15 (WT DR + food smell), 10 (del-3 fed), 12 (del-3 fed + food smell), 14 (del-3 DR), 11 (del-3 DR + food smell) biologically independent animals. p-value = 1.32e-06 (WT DR vs. WT DR + food smell), 0.212 (del-3 DR vs. del-3 DR + food smell). Survival curves of conditions comparing WT (black) to del-3 (i) on fed (pink) and DR (purple) conditions in combination with food smell (dotted lines). WT control (black) survival curve is also displayed in Supplementary Fig. 6a. Data in i and Supplementary Fig. 6a were acquired concurrently. Images (j) and quantification (k) of fmo-2p::mCherry in a WT, cat-2 KO, or cat-2 KO with cat-2 CEP neuron rescue on DR (pink) and DR + food smell (purple). Scale bar, 1 mm. n = 25 (WT DR), 14 (WT DR + food smell), 8 (cat-2(-) DR), 16 (cat-2(-) DR + food smell), 43 (cat-2(-) + CEP rescue DR), 19 (cat-2(-) + CEP rescue DR + food smell) biologically independent animals. p-value = 0.0103 (WT DR vs. WT DR + food smell), 0.0922 (cat-2 (-) DR vs. cat-2 (-) DR + food smell), 0.000114 (cat-2 (-) + CEP rescue DR vs. cat-2 (-) + CEP rescue DR + food smell). ^*P < .05, ***P < .001 and ****P < .0001 (Welch Two Sample t-test, two-sided). The box plots display the median by the middle line of the box. The upper boundary of the box indicates the 75% interquartile range, and the lower boundary indicates the 25% interquartile range.