Analysis of Odorant Receptor Genes

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目旨在阐明嗅觉系统功能和组织的基本原理。特别是，它试图解释气味被编码的逻辑，以及编码它们的系统的分子组织。该实验计划利用果蝇黑腹果蝇作为模型系统，可以对单个嗅觉细胞进行深入的分子遗传分析和生理测量。该项目通过三个具体目标解决气味编码的分子和细胞逻辑。第一个目标是确定在体内表达系统中几乎所有触角受体对100种气味的反应谱和时间动态，并确定受体是否可以执行简单的逻辑操作。目的是为了解决关于气味编码机制的核心问题。第二个目标是将气味受体映射到神经元，目的是测试一个受体-一个神经元规则描述嗅觉系统组织的程度。第三个目的是验证气味受体基因家族的两个成员编码抑制交配行为的信息素受体的假设。昆虫携带的疾病每年折磨着数亿人，其中许多昆虫通过嗅觉线索找到它们的人类宿主和配偶。对嗅觉和信息素接收的理解的进步可能会导致控制这些人类疾病的昆虫媒介的新手段。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to elucidate basic principles of olfactory system function and organization. In particular, it seeks to explain the logic by which odors are encoded and the molecular organization of the system that encodes them. The experimental plan takes advantage of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system, which allows incisive molecular genetic analysis and physiological measurement of individual olfactory cells. The project addresses the molecular and cellular logic of odor coding through three specific aims. The first aim is to define the response spectrum and temporal dynamics of virtually the entire repertoire of antennal receptors with respect to a panel of 100 odorants in an in vivo expression system, and to determine whether the receptors can carry out simple logical operations. The aim is designed to address central questions about the mechanism of odor coding. The second aim is to map odor receptors to neurons, with the goal of testing the extent to which the one receptor-one neuron rule describes olfactory system organization. The third aim is to test the hypothesis that two members of the odor receptor gene family encode pheromone receptors that suppress mating behavior. Diseases carried by insects afflict hundreds of millions of people every year, and many of these insects locate their human hosts and their mates through olfactory cues. Advances in the understanding of olfactory and pheromonal reception could lead to new means of controlling these insect vectors of human disease.