How you can make a fruit fly eat veggies | DIY Neuroscience, a TED series

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Indah Setiawan

Greg Gage: It's an age-old pursuit of all parents,

Sejak dulu, para orang tua kesulitan membuat anak-anaknya makan sayuran.

getting their kids to eat their vegetables.

But getting them to eat cookies or ice cream

Padahal, meminta mereka untuk makan biskuit atau es krim relatif mudah.

is relatively easy,

Itu karena otak kita lebih suka manis.

and that's because our brains prefer sweetness.

Kini, ada teknologi baru yang disebut optogenetika,

Now, there's a new technology called optogenetics

which may be able to trick our taste buds,

yang mungkin bisa menipu kuncup perasa,

for instance preferring vegetables over sweets.

misalnya menjadi lebih suka sayur daripada permen.

We're going to try this today using fruit flies.

Kita akan mencobanya pada lalat buah.

[DIY Neuroscience]

Alasan kita mencobanya pada lalat buah adalah karena sistem sarafnya yang kecil

The reason why we experiment with fruit flies

is they have a small enough nervous system

sehingga akan lebih memudahkan kita untuk memahami prosesnya.

that gives us a fighting chance to really understand what's going on.

Percaya atau tidak, kuncup perasa lalat sangat mirip dengan kita.

And believe it or not, their taste buds are very similar to ours.

Sebelum memanipulasi kesukaan lalat terhadap rasa,

But before we try to manipulate their taste preferences,

kita harus menetapkan garis acuan pada lalat buah.

we need to establish: What is the baseline of the fruit fly?

Apa yang disukainya?

What does it prefer?

We call this a control experiment.

Kita menyebutnya percobaan kontrol.

Spencer's been hard at work doing this.

Spencer telah bekerja keras melakukannya.

OK, Spencer, let's do our first experiment.

Gage: Spencer, ayo lakukan percobaan awal.

We want to test to see if fruit flies prefer bananas or broccoli.

Kita ingin tahu apakah lalat buah lebih suka pisang atau brokoli.

So what do we need?

Apa yang kita butuhkan?

Spencer Brown: So we need the fly pad, which is basically an iPad for flies.

Spencer: Kita butuh fly pad, yaitu iPad untuk lalat.

Alat ini mengukur sentuhan.

It measures the touch.

GG: You put a fly in each chamber?

Satu lalat di dalam tiap bilik?

SB: Yeah. Inside, we'll offer them banana and broccoli

Ya. Di situ, kita beri mereka pisang dan brokoli agar tahu mana yang disukai.

to see which one they prefer.

GG: In order to count how many times

Untuk menghitung berapa kali lalat buah memakan pisang atau brokoli,

the fruit fly eats a banana versus the broccoli,

these chambers have been outfitted with a small electrode

bilik ini telah dipasangi elektroda kecil yang mengirimkan data ke komputer.

that sends data to a computer.

And so what were your findings on banana versus broccoli?

Jadi, apa hasilnya, antara pisang dan brokoli?

SB: I found that the flies visited banana the most.

Kebanyakan lalat buah itu menghampiri pisang.

Jadi, meski ada dua opsi, seperti anak-anak,

GG: Both were there, but like most kids,

they choose not to eat the broccoli, and they go switch to something sweeter.

mereka menolak makan brokoli dan memilih yang lebih manis.

Tepat.

GG: Now a quick background on how taste works.

Sekarang, kita tinjau cara kerja pengecap.

Taste buds are made up of specialized neurons

Kuncup perasa terdiri dari sel saraf khusus, yaitu reseptor pengecap.

called taste receptors.

When we eat something that triggers a particular taste,

Saat kita memakan sesuatu yang memicu rasa tertentu,

those taste neurons will fire a signal to the brain.

saraf pengecap itu akan mengirimkan sinyal ke otak.

Inilah cara otak kita membedakan rasa manis dan pahit.

This allows our brain to know what's sweet and what's bitter.

Maka, saat lalat buah makan pisang, saraf pengecap manis mengirimkan sinyal.

So when a fruit fly eats a banana, its sweet taste neurons will fire.

But when it eats broccoli, those same neurons stay pretty quiet.

Tetapi, saat lalat makan brokoli, saraf tersebut akan diam saja.

But what if we could force those sweet-tasting neurons to fire

Bagaimana jika kita bisa memaksa saraf itu mengirim sinyal tiap lalat makan brokoli?

every time the fruit fly eats broccoli?

Kita mungkin bisa membuat lalat buah menyukai brokoli sama seperti pisang.

We may be able to get the fruit fly

to like broccoli as much as banana.

Di sinilah peran optogenetika.

Enter optogenetics.

This is the revolutionary new tool that's taking neuroscience by storm,

Teknik baru yang revolusioner ini menghebohkan dunia ilmu saraf,

and in this case, "opto" means light

Dalam hal ini, ”opto” berarti cahaya,

and "genetic" refers to the fact that these fruit flies have been modified

sedangkan “genetika” mengacu pada modifikasi terhadap lalat buah

to contain a special gene that makes only certain neurons respond to light.

untuk menyimpan gen khusus

yang membuat hanya sel saraf tertentu bisa merespons cahaya.

In our case, we've added the special gene to the sweet taste receptors.

Di sini, kami menambahkan gen khusus itu ke reseptor pengecap manis.

Now here's the fun part.

Di sinilah menariknya.

Optogenetics means that we can control these special neurons

Optogenetika memungkinkan kita mengendalikan sel saraf khusus ini

setiap kali mereka terpapar oleh cahaya berwarna cerah,

whenever they're exposed to a bright-colored light,

causing them to send messages to the brain.

sehingga mereka mengirimkan pesan ke otak.

In this experiment, we're going to have these modified fruit flies

Dalam percobaan ini,

kami akan membuat lalat termodifikasi ini untuk memilih pisang atau brokoli lagi,

choose between banana and broccoli again,

hanya saja kali ini, setiap kali lalat buah memakan brokoli,

only this time, every time the fruit fly eats the broccoli,

we're going to trigger a big bright red light.

kami akan menyalakan cahaya merah terang.

Saat kanal mendeteksi cahaya merah itu, kanal akan terbuka

And when the channels see that red light, they're going to open up,

dan sel saraf akan mengirimkan sinyal

and they're going to cause that neuron to fire,

dan pesan rasa manis akan dikirim ke otak.

and the sweet taste message will be sent to the brain.

Bagaimana mengeluarkan lalat itu?

How do you get them out?

Kita akan menggunakan aspirator mulut, terbuat dari gabungan dua sedotan.

SB: So we're going to be using a mouth aspirator,

so it's just two straws put together.

Jadi, nama keren sedotan.

GG: So it's a fancy name for a straw.

Baiklah.

Begitulah.

SB: Basically.

- Jadi kamu akan menyedotnya keluar. - Ya.

GG: So you're going to suck those out.

Have you ever sucked up a fly before?

Apakah lalatnya pernah tertelan?

SB: Once or twice.

Sekali atau dua kali.

GG: There we go. You got all four.

Baik, sudah keempat-empatnya. Sempurna.

OK, perfect.

Selanjutnya, nyalakan OptoStimmers,

So you're going to turn on your OptoStimmers here.

You're going to park the light right on top of the chambers.

lalu kamu letakkan lampunya tepat di atas bilik.

So now we sit here and we wait for them to eat broccoli,

Kita tinggal duduk dan menunggu mereka makan brokoli,

and then when the light fires,

lalu saat lampunya menyala,

they're going to think it's tasting something sweet.

mereka akan mengira itu rasanya manis.

Ayo. Oh, ia makin dekat.

Come on. Oh, he's getting closer.

Come on. It tastes good now.

Ayolah. Sekarang rasanya enak.

SB: It's about to.

Sebentar lagi.

GG: Oh, he's back. All right!

Oh, dia kembali. Bagus!

All right, so now we see that some of these flies

Baik, sekarang kita lihat sebagian lalat ini

are switching over from the banana to the broccoli.

beralih dari pisang ke brokoli.

SB: Exactly, yeah.

Tepat sekali.

GG: Every time this light goes off,

Setiap kali lampu ini menyala,

mereka mengira sedang merasakan sesuatu yang manis.

that means that they think they're tasting something sweet.

Ya. Jadi, lalat ini akan terus mencarinya.

SB: Yeah. So this guy's really going after it.

Jadi, kita berhasil membuat brokoli

GG: So we saw that we were able to rescue broccoli

terasa sama enaknya dengan pisang bagi lalat buah kami.

and make it just as appealing as banana to our fruit flies.

Hasil yang sama juga didapatkan setiap saat percobaan kami diulang.

And we're able to replicate these same results

in all of our experiments.

Kini pertanyaannya: Dapatkah kita melakukannya pada manusia?

So the question is: Can we do the same thing in humans?

Well, that depends on a number of items.

Nah, itu tergantung pada beberapa hal.

First, do optogenetic tools even work in humans?

Pertama, apakah optogenetika benar-benar bisa diterapkan pada manusia?

And that looks like the answer is yes,

Ternyata, kelihatannya bisa.

and in fact, clinical trials are already being planned

Bahkan, uji klinis telah direncanakan

that will treat chronic pain and blindness using optogenetics.

untuk menangani sakit kronis dan kebutaan menggunakan optogenetika.

And the next question is, can we easily trigger a light source

Pertanyaan berikutnya,

bisakah kita mengatur agar sumber cahaya menyala setiap kali makan sayuran?

so that every time we eat vegetables, it will go off?

For that, I'm afraid at least at this time, the answer is still no.

Untuk hal ini, setidaknya untuk sekarang, sayangnya masih belum bisa.

But today, we got to witness just a taste of optogenetics

Tetapi, kita baru saja menyaksikan kekuatan kecil dari optogenetika

and its amazing potential.

dan potensinya yang menakjubkan.

(Music)