Chemical Signal Detection: Filter Properties of Chemoreceptor Organs

这是一个研究与化学物质感测有关的物理因素的项目。正在探讨的基本问题是，正在被感知的化学物质是如何被运输到受体器官的，以及这些过程是如何通过形态和行为的进化特化来改变的。使用的化学感官动物模型是通过龙虾嗅觉感受器检测氨基酸。在这些动物中，刺激摄食的氨基酸扩散到受体。在这样做的过程中，它们最终必须通过与器官本身相邻的非常薄的液体层扩散。不同的化学感受器器官，即使在同一动物中，也可能具有显著不同的形态，从而导致不同的扩散层。此外，动物在对环境进行采样时的行为(例如，轻弹和嗅探)会影响边界层，也有助于将环境中湍流的混杂影响降至最低。该项目将包括测试受体器官过滤的计算模型，方法是测量和操纵不同化学感受器器官的扩散层，并测量活动物细胞中反应的时间进程。因此，它将导致对扩散层的结构和功能以及它们对化学信号分析的贡献的理解。这里研究的龙虾的过滤原理是所有化学传感系统的重要组成部分。对它们的研究很少，了解也很少，本研究得出的结论应该对其他系统具有广泛的推广性。

This is a project to study some of the physical factors involved in sensing of chemicals. The basic issue being approached is how the chemicals that are being sensed are transported to the receptor organs, and how the processes are modified by evolutionary specializations in morphology and behavior. The animal model of chemical sensing that is used is the detection of amino acids by lobster olfactory receptors. In these animals the amino acids, which are feeding stimuli, diffuse to the receptors. In doing so, they finally must diffuse through very thin layers of fluid adjacent to the organs themselves. Different chemoreceptor organs, even in the same animal, can have dramatically different morphology that can result in different diffusion layers. In addition, the animal's behaviors in sampling the environment (flicking and sniffing, for example), affect the boundary layer and also help to minimize the confounding effects of turbulence in the environment. The project will include testing a computational model of receptor organ filtering by measuring and manipulating diffusion layers in different chemoreceptor organs and measuring the time courses of responses in the cells in the living animals. Thus, it will result in an understanding of the structure and function of diffusion layers and of their contribution to analysis of chemical signals. The principles of filtering being studied here in the lobster are important components of all chemical sensing systems. They are little studied and poorly understood, and the conclusions drawn in this study should have wide generalizability to other systems as we..