German Cockroach Head taken by
Ayako Wada-Katsumata and Andrew Ernst
Researchers, , , and that some German cockroaches have developed an adaptive behavior of glucose aversion. Glucose, a simple sugar, is used to cover the poison in man-made traps for cockroaches. The German cockroach has gustatory receptor neurons (basically taste buds) in their mouths. The researchers focused on the sweet and bitter gustatory receptor neurons. When the glucose aversion cockroaches were expose to fructose, another type of simple sugar, the sweet gustatory receptor neurons were activated. Activation of the sweet gustatory receptor neuron means that the cockroach will continue eating. However, when the glucose aversion cockroach was expose to glucose, the bitter gustatory receptor neuron were activated. The activation of the bitter gustatory receptor neuron causes the cockroach to stop feeding. The mutation of the glucose aversion German cockroach has helped the cockroaches evade human termination, which allows the glucose aversion German cockroach to pass on the mutation to their offspring. The evolution of the glucose aversion German cockroach is quite interesting because of its advantage in the outmaneuvering man-made traps. The original article can be found here on Science's website.