Development of olfactory neurons in C. elegans

线虫嗅觉神经元的发育

• 批准号: 0129370
• 负责人: Piali Sengupta
• 金额: $ 52.19万
• 依托单位: Brandeis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-03-01 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0129370&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; olfactory; neurons; C.; elegans

Lay Summary Animals recognize and respond to many different volatile chemicals in their environment using specialized nerve cells called olfactory neurons. We are interested in understanding how the specific functional properties of individual olfactory neurons are defined during development. We are exploring this issue in the model genetic organism, the small soil nematode C. elegans. C. elegans responds to and discriminates among thousands of environmental chemicals using a small set of olfactory neurons including the AWA, AWB and AWC neurons. We propose to investigate how the functions of the AWB neurons are defined developmentally. In previous work, we identified three genes that play important roles during AWB development. In animals mutant for the kin-29 protein kinase gene, the AWB neurons fail to correctly express a subset of olfactory receptor proteins. In sns-11 mutants, the AWB neurons do not exhibit any AWB-specific functional or morphological properties, while in sns-9 mutant animals, additional AWB-like neurons are observed. We will utilize genetic, molecular and biochemical techniques to further investigate the roles of these three genes in AWB neuron development. We expect that our findings will not only yield insights into the mechanisms by which functional diversity is achieved among olfactory neurons, but also provide information regarding the basic principles underlying neuronal development.

动物使用称为嗅觉神经元的专门神经细胞识别和响应环境中的许多不同挥发性化学物质。我们有兴趣了解如何在发展过程中定义个别嗅觉神经元的特定功能特性。我们正在模式遗传生物--小型土壤线虫C.优美的C.线虫使用包括AWA、AWB和AWC神经元在内的一小组嗅觉神经元对数千种环境化学物质作出反应并进行区分。我们建议调查的功能AWB神经元的定义发展。在以前的工作中，我们确定了三个基因在AWB发展过程中发挥重要作用。在kin-29蛋白激酶基因突变的动物中，AWB神经元不能正确表达嗅觉受体蛋白的子集。在sns-11突变体中，AWB神经元不表现出任何AWB特异性的功能或形态学特性，而在sns-9突变体动物中，观察到额外的AWB样神经元。我们将利用遗传学、分子生物学和生物化学技术进一步研究这三个基因在AWB神经元发育中的作用。我们希望我们的研究结果不仅能深入了解嗅觉神经元之间实现功能多样性的机制，而且还能提供有关神经元发育基本原理的信息。