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

该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助。所有生物体都使用味觉来确定潜在的食物是否会被摄取或拒绝，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，这些细胞检测食物中的化学物质，然后向大脑发送描述该刺激的特定信号。这个项目的目标是描述一种新发现的味觉细胞中有助于味觉刺激检测的信号通路。对这一信号通路的表征将提供更好的了解味觉系统是如何工作的，以及大脑是如何收集周围环境的信息的。将结合钙成像、分子生物学和免疫细胞化学来描述这一新发现的信号通路，并确定其在发送到大脑的味觉信号形成中的生理作用。该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。这一信息至关重要有两个原因：1)了解如何从环境中检测到化学物质对摄食行为(包括食物摄入量的调节)具有重要影响；2)关于这些神经细胞的生理学信息将转化为更好地理解所有神经元中的信号通路是如何发挥作用的。该项目将为包括少数族裔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方面的培训，以及味觉细胞上的活细胞钙成像。这些技能将使学生能够使用多方面的方法回答研究问题(无论是在品味领域还是其他方面)。

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.