Beyond Odor Receptors: Molecular basis of insect olfaction

超越气味受体：昆虫嗅觉的分子基础

• 批准号: 10678923
• 负责人: Karen Anne Menuz
• 金额: $ 40.25万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10678923
• 关键词: Animal Behavior; Behavior; Candidate Disease Gene; Cloning; Code; Complex; Development; Disease; Drosophila genus; Explosion; Food; Genes; Genetic; Insect Control; Insecta; Knowledge; Malaria; Mediating; Metabolic; Methods; Modality; Molecular; Neurons; Odors; Olfactory Pathways; Olfactory Receptor Neurons; Organ; Organism; Partner in relationship; Physiological; Receptor Activation; Research; Role; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Smell Perception; Source; Stereotyping; Supporting Cell; Toxin; Vertebrates; Volatilization; desensitization; model organism; receptor; receptor function; response; tool; transcriptome sequencing; transmission process

Complex organisms such as vertebrates and insects have developed specialized chemosensory organs in order to locate food, evaluate mates, and avoid toxins. The sensing of volatile odors is particularly challenging because odors are often present at low levels in turbulent plumes, yet many animal behaviors rely on the faithful coding of odor signals by olfactory receptor neurons. The past few decades have witnessed an explosion of research into olfactory systems, following the cloning of the first odor receptors. Initial research focused on understanding odor receptor function, characterizing their odor response profiles, and understanding their effects on behavior. However, many open questions remain regarding the molecular and cellular mechanisms supporting olfaction in the periphery, particularly in regards to insect olfaction. What signaling mechanisms are downstream of insect odor receptor activation? How are odors removed from the peri-neuronal space? What contribution do non- neuronal support cells make to olfactory neuron activity? How are the support cells of olfactory sensilla similar or different than those in sensilla that mediate other sensory modalities? My lab seeks answers for these questions in the Drosophila antenna, their primary olfactory organ. This versatile model organism is advantageous for such studies because we can exploit the large number of available genetic tools and existing knowledge on its stereotyped receptor and neuronal organization. Here we propose to study the functions of several candidate genes that have arisen from our recent computational screen, and may provide answers to several outstanding questions in field olfaction field as described above. One project centers on several highly conserved antennal-enriched signaling genes and their putative roles in amplification and desensitization downstream of odor receptor activation. Two additional projects focus on the interactions between non-neuronal support cells and the signaling of olfactory neurons. One investigates the role of support cells in odor degradation using candidate metabolic genes that arose from our screen and an RNASeq-based method to identify new candidates. We will also elucidate the potential differences in function between the major support cell classes, which are found not only in olfactory sensilla but also in sensilla that mediate other physiological functions.

脊椎动物和昆虫等复杂的生物已经开发了专业的化学体器官 要定位食物，评估伴侣并避免毒素。感知挥发性气味特别具有挑战性，因为 气味通常在湍流羽流中较低，但许多动物行为依赖于忠实的编码 嗅觉受体神经元的气味信号。过去的几十年见证了研究的爆炸 遵循第一个气味受体的克隆进入嗅觉系统。最初的研究重点是理解 气味受体功能，表征其气味响应曲线以及了解其对行为的影响。 但是，关于支持嗅觉的分子和细胞机制仍然存在许多开放性问题 外围，尤其是关于昆虫嗅觉的。哪些信号机制在昆虫的下游 气味受体激活？如何从神经周围空间中去除气味？什么贡献是非 - 神经元支持细胞会导致嗅觉神经元活性？嗅觉Sensilla的支持细胞如何相似 还是与介导其他感觉方式的Sensilla中的不同？我的实验室为这些寻求答案 果蝇天线的问题，它们的主要嗅觉器官。这个多功能模型的生物是 对于此类研究有利，因为我们可以利用大量可用遗传工具和现有 关于其定型受体和神经元组织的知识。 在这里，我们建议研究我们最近的几个候选基因的功能 计算屏幕，并可能为现场嗅觉领域的几个未悬而未决的问题提供答案 上面描述。一个项目集中于几个高度保守的触角信号基因及其 在气味受体激活的下游扩增和脱敏中的推定作用。另外两个 项目着重于非神经元支持细胞与嗅觉神经元信号之间的相互作用。 一个人使用候选代谢基因来研究支持细胞在气味降解中的作用 我们的屏幕和基于RNASEQ的方法来识别新候选者。我们还将阐明潜力 主要支持细胞类之间的功能差异，不仅在嗅觉sensilla中发现，而且还发现 还介导其他生理功能的感觉。