Understanding morphological, molecular, and functional adaptations of the amphibian olfactory system demanded by transition from aquatic to terrestrial habitats

了解两栖动物嗅觉系统从水生栖息地过渡到陆地栖息地所需的形态、分子和功能适应

• 批准号: 356132378
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Ivan Manzini
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Tierphysiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/356132378?language=en
• 关键词: Understanding; morphological; molecular; functional; adaptations

Amphibians were among the first species to conquer terrestrial habitats and thus evolved major adaptations, also of the olfactory system. How transitions in aquatic, semi-aquatic, secondarily aquatic, and terrestrial life styles lead to morphological, molecular and functional adaptations in the olfactory system is still unknown. The olfactory system of the secondarily aquatic African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, exhibits a number of interesting structural, molecular, and functional peculiarities in comparison to the mammalian and fish olfactory system. Among them, a bifurcated axonal wiring pattern of olfactory receptor neurons with multi-glomerular connectivity in the olfactory bulb is a major difference to other so far investigated olfactory systems. It is unclear if these special features are adaptations to a secondarily aquatic life style or if they extend to other amphibian species with other preferred habitats. With the Xenopus olfactory system as basis, we plan to comparatively investigate a wide range of amphibian species with a variety of life styles using a multidisciplinary approach integrating investigations of cellular structure, functional and molecular properties, brain network organization, and behavior.

两栖动物是最早征服陆地栖息地的物种之一，因此进化出了重大的适应能力，嗅觉系统也是如此。水生、半水生、次生水生和陆生生活方式的转变如何导致嗅觉系统的形态、分子和功能适应仍是未知的。非洲爪蛙的嗅觉系统与哺乳动物和鱼类的嗅觉系统相比，表现出许多有趣的结构、分子和功能特性。其中，嗅球内具有多个肾小球连接的嗅觉感受器神经元的分叉轴突连接模式是与其他迄今研究的嗅觉系统的主要不同之处。目前尚不清楚这些特殊特征是对次生水生生活方式的适应，还是延伸到具有其他偏好栖息地的其他两栖动物物种。以非洲爪哇的嗅觉系统为基础，我们计划采用多学科的方法，结合细胞结构、功能和分子特性、脑网络组织和行为的研究，对具有不同生活方式的广泛的两栖物种进行比较研究。