Defining the role of the PLCbeta3 signaling pathway in mouse taste cells

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。所有的生物体都利用味觉来决定潜在的食物是否会被摄入或拒绝，这对生物体的生存至关重要。味觉系统由多种类型的细胞组成，它们检测食物中的化学物质，然后向大脑发送特定的信号，描述这种刺激。这个项目的目标是表征一个新发现的信号通路味觉细胞，有助于味觉刺激的检测。对这一信号通路的描述将有助于我们更好地理解味觉系统是如何工作的，以及大脑如何收集周围环境的信息。钙成像、分子生物学和免疫细胞化学的结合将被用来描述这一新发现的信号通路，并定义其在味觉信号形成中的生理作用，这些信号被发送到大脑。这个项目的发现将提高人们对位于舌头上的味觉感受器细胞如何检测食物中的化学物质并将这些信息转化为大脑可以理解的信号的理解。这些信息至关重要的原因有两个：1)了解如何从环境中检测化学物质对摄食行为（包括食物摄入的调节）具有重要意义；2)关于这些神经元细胞的生理学信息将有助于更好地理解信号通路在所有神经元中的作用。该项目将为包括少数民族和妇女在内的多名研究生和本科生提供研究和培训机会。学生将接受分子生物学和免疫细胞化学技术以及味觉细胞活细胞钙成像的培训。这些技能将提供学生的能力，回答研究问题（无论是在味觉领域或其他地方）使用多方面的方法。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The sense of taste is used by all organisms to determine whether potential food items will be ingested or rejected and is critical for the survival of the organism. The taste system is made up of multiple cell types that detect chemicals in food and then send a specific signal describing that stimulus to the brain. The goal of this project is to characterize a newly identified signaling pathway in taste cells that contributes to the detection of taste stimuli. Characterization of this signaling pathway will provide a better understanding of how the taste system works and how the brain gathers information about its surroundings. A combination of calcium imaging, molecular biology, and immunocytochemistry will be used to describe this newly identified signaling pathway and define its physiological role in the formation of taste signals that are sent to the brain. The findings that emerge from this project will improve the understanding of how taste receptor cells that are located on the tongue can detect chemicals in food and translate that information into a signal that the brain can understand. This information is critical for two reasons: 1) understanding how chemicals are detected from the environment has important implications in feeding behaviors including the regulation of food intake, and 2) information about the physiology of these neuronal cells will translate into a better understanding of how signaling pathways function in all neurons. This project will provide research and training opportunities for multiple graduate and undergraduate students, including both minorities and women. Students will be trained in molecular biology and immunocytochemical techniques as well as live cell calcium imaging on taste cells. These skills will provide students with the ability to answer research questions (either in the taste field or elsewhere) using a multi-faceted approach.