This strategy complements those observed in odor gradients, where odor increases drive straighter trajectories, while odor decreases drive re-orientation (e.g. Thus, many organisms have evolved a strategy of using odor information to gate upwind (or upstream) movement to locate the source of an attractive odor 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Within these plumes, instantaneous odor concentration is often a poor cue to source direction 3, 4, 5. In natural environments, food odors are often transported by wind, forming turbulent plumes 1, 2. Searching for a resource such as food requires the integration of multiple sensory cues. Our results suggest that odor and wind cues are processed by separate pathways and integrated within the fan-shaped body to support goal-directed navigation. Based on connectome data, we develop a computational model showing how h∆C activity can promote navigation towards a goal such as an upwind odor source. We show that h∆C neurons exhibit odor-gated, wind direction-tuned activity, that sparse activation of h∆C neurons promotes navigation in a reproducible direction, and that h∆C activity is required for persistent upwind orientation during odor. Using connectomics, we identify fan-shaped body local neurons called h∆C that receive input from this odor pathway and a previously described wind pathway. We show that neurons throughout this pathway encode odor, but not wind direction. Here we describe a pathway to the Drosophila fan-shaped body that encodes attractive odor and promotes upwind navigation. Where and how these two cues are integrated to support navigation is unclear. To navigate towards a food source, animals frequently combine odor cues about source identity with wind direction cues about source location.
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