Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) are used to reduce caloric intake by replacing sugar with compounds that are sweet but contain little or no calories. In this study, we investigate how non-nutritive sweetener sucralose to promote acute food intake in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Our results showed that acute exposure to NNSs sweetness induces a robust hyperphagic response in flies. Cellular and molecular dissection of this acute effect revealed the requirement of a reward pathway comprising of sweet taste neurons, octopaminergic neurons, and NPF neurons which drive increased food intake in response to sucralose. These data provide mechanistic insight into how NNSs can increase food intake, information that may help us better understand how artificially sweeteners may impact our physiology.
