The organizing principle of grouped olfactory receptor neurons

项目总结/摘要 这个项目的目标是确定嗅觉受体神经元（ORN）的组织原则 果蝇触角上的感觉毛中的一组。对于大多数感觉系统来说，神经元是以一种 有序的方式来形成来自外部世界的刺激的地形表示。了解 这种地图的组织原则对于破译所提取的显著特征的性质至关重要 通过侧抑制从平行输入中恢复。然而，在嗅觉中，神经元是否以及如何组织 转化为感官地图的过程还很不清楚据报道，在啮齿动物和苍蝇中， 并不一定对相似的气味有反应。在没有化学定位图的情况下， 嗅觉系统的组织原则为了解决这个复杂的问题，这里概述的研究 利用了果蝇强大的遗传工具包和易于控制的嗅觉系统。一般假设- ORN基于其检测到的气味的享乐值在外围组织，以形成价 图-将通过系统的行为测定与选择的光遗传学或热遗传学激活进行测试 受体神经元该建议的第一个目的是确定意见的普遍性，即在同一个 感觉毛，区室化的ORN介导相反的行为-通过激活 大尖峰ORN和小尖峰邻居的厌恶。其余的目标建议审查这一点 感觉毛中的一种组织原则，与调节雌性产卵（Aim 2）或雄性求偶有关 行为（目标3）。该提案的成功执行可能会弥合长期存在的知识差距， 通过首次揭示复杂有机体中的嗅觉地图，感官生物学。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The goal of this project is to determine the organizing principle underlying olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) grouping in the antennal sensory hairs of Drosophila. For most sensory systems, neurons are arranged in an ordered manner to form topographic representations of stimuli from the external world. Understanding the organizing principle of such maps is critical for deciphering the nature of salient features that are extracted from parallel inputs through lateral inhibition. However in olfaction, whether and how neurons are organized into a sensory map remains largely unclear. In both rodents and flies, it is reported that neighboring glomeruli do not necessarily respond to similar odorants. In the absence of a chemotopic map, what then is the organizing principle for the olfactory system? To address this complex question, the research outlined here leverages the powerful genetic toolkit and tractable olfactory system of Drosophila. The general hypothesis— that ORNs are organized in the periphery based on the hedonic value of their detected odors to form a valence map—will be tested via systematic behavioral assays with optogenetic or thermogenetic activation of select receptor neurons. The proposal’s first aim is to determine the generality of the observation that in the same sensory hair, compartmentalized ORNs mediate opposing behavior—with attraction elicited by activation of the large-spike ORN(s) and aversion by the small-spike neighbor(s). The remaining aims propose to examine this organizing principle in sensory hairs implicated in regulating female egg-laying (Aim 2) or male courtship behavior (Aim 3). Successful execution of the proposal will likely bridge a longstanding knowledge gap in sensory biology by revealing, for the first time, olfactory maps within a complex organism.