Synthetic Entomology

合成昆虫学

• 批准号: 1413062
• 负责人: Ichiro Matsumura
• 金额: $ 67.68万
• 依托单位: Emory University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1413062&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Synthetic; Entomology

The award, funded by the Systems and Synthetic Biology Program in MCB and the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering Program in CBET, will support studies of insect behavior. The broad aim of this project is to develop techniques for synthetic animal biology, and to apply them to produce new behaviors. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is the logical starting point for these experiments because it is well understood and experimentally tractable. It has a brain and a nervous system, so it can taste, see, hear, sense odors and touch, learn and remember. It has one of the most sophisticated actuation systems found in nature-the capacity for controlled flight. The proposed experiments will show how these behaviors can be harnessed and engineered. In particular, its olfactory system, which governs its sense of smell, will be genetically modified, so that the resulting strain will not be able to smell anything except a commonly used explosive. Such flies could serve as autonomous biological sensing systems for the detection of bombs and land mines. The PIs will engage students at all levels in interdisciplinary research on this topic, and collaborate with a group of local restaurant chefs to teach the public about the science that underlies flavor and olfaction.Technical description: Synthetic biologists design and construct useful biological devices, but most work exclusively with microbes. Multi-cellular species including Drosophila melanogaster possess complex traits such as behavior, perception, cognition and memory. The investigators propose to engineer a fruit fly that senses otherwise undetectable odors. The investigators have bred a D. melanogaster variant that expresses the receptor for bombykol, a sex-attractant pheromone produced by the silk moth, Bombyx mori. The native olfactory receptor set does not function normally in the engineered fly, so it should not be distracted from bombykol by the smell of food or other attractants. In this project, the investigators will express insect odorant receptors in cultured cells, and develop an assay for function (Specific Aim 1), engineer olfactory receptors that better recognize an odorant, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT, Specific Aim 2), breed new flies that express the engineered olfactory receptor (Specific Aim 3), and t demonstrate the changes in their behavior (attraction to TNT over the normally favored odorant, benzaldehyde, Specific Aim 4). The results of these experiments will be communicated to synthetic biologists (Specific Aim 4) and the general public (Specific Aim 5). The results will improve the current understanding of the structure and function of insect olfactory receptors, which have not been crystallized and are unrelated to those of mammals. More generally, they will extend the scope of synthetic biology to insects and encourage debate about the application of engineering approaches to higher animals.

该奖项由MCB的系统和合成生物学计划以及CBET的生物技术，生物化学和生物质工程计划资助，将支持昆虫行为的研究。该项目的主要目标是开发合成动物生物学技术，并将其应用于产生新的行为。果蝇，黑腹果蝇，是这些实验的逻辑起点，因为它是很好理解和实验驯服。它有一个大脑和一个神经系统，所以它可以尝，看，听，感觉气味和触摸，学习和记忆。它拥有自然界中最复杂的驱动系统之一--控制飞行的能力。拟议的实验将展示如何利用和设计这些行为。特别是，它的嗅觉系统，控制其嗅觉，将被基因改造，使所产生的菌株将无法闻到任何东西，除了常用的爆炸物。这种苍蝇可以作为探测炸弹和地雷的自主生物传感系统。 PI将让各个层次的学生参与这一主题的跨学科研究，并与当地餐厅的厨师合作，向公众传授有关风味和嗅觉的科学知识。技术描述：合成生物学家设计和构建有用的生物设备，但大多数只与微生物合作。包括黑腹果蝇在内的多细胞物种具有复杂的行为、知觉、认知和记忆等特征。研究人员建议设计一种果蝇，它能感知到其他方法无法检测到的气味。研究人员培育出了一种D.表达家蚕酚受体的黑腹变种，家蚕酚是由蚕蛾产生的性引诱信息素。天然嗅觉受体在工程果蝇中不能正常发挥作用，因此它不应该被食物或其他引诱剂的气味分散注意力。在这个项目中，研究人员将在培养的细胞中表达昆虫气味受体，并开发一种功能测定方法。（具体目标1），设计嗅觉受体，更好地识别气味，2，4，6-三硝基甲苯（TNT，特异性目标2），培育表达工程嗅觉受体的新果蝇（具体目标3），并证明其行为的变化（吸引TNT超过通常喜爱的气味剂，苯甲醛，具体目标4）。这些实验的结果将传达给合成生物学家（具体目标4）和公众（具体目标5）。这些结果将提高目前对昆虫嗅觉受体结构和功能的理解，这些嗅觉受体尚未结晶，与哺乳动物无关。更广泛地说，他们将把合成生物学的范围扩大到昆虫，并鼓励关于将工程方法应用于高等动物的辩论。