Adapting Neurogenetic Technologies for Use in the Desert-dwelling Fly Drosophila Mojavensis

项目概要： 我们的最终目标是阐明感觉处理是如何在单个细胞的水平上发生的， 电路，以及这如何通过决策过程导致定向行为。在这里，我们将创建 神经遗传学试剂，这将有助于引入沙漠果蝇莫哈韦西斯作为一个新的比较 模型系统，以研究温度和湿度感知和偏好的神经生物学。我们将使用 CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑技术和位点特异性整合产生D.莫哈韦西斯菌株， 可以灵活地用于沉默，成像的活动，或激活选择的细胞类型，处理温度和 周围和大脑中的湿度信号。我们的期望是，一旦关键的基础工作 完成后，我们的试剂将帮助我们和其他人设计强大的比较研究，以建立 该种与其实验室近缘种D.黑腹动物， 并最终帮助确定所有动物在感觉处理中使用的一般原则。

PROJECT SUMMARY: Our ultimate goal is to elucidate how sensory processing occurs in the brain at the level of individual cells and circuits, and how this leads to directed behavior through the process of decision making. Here, we will create neurogenetic reagents that will help introduce the desert fly Drosophila mojavensis as a new comparative model system to study the neurobiology of temperature and humidity sensing and preference. We will use CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology and site-specific integration to produce D. mojavensis strains that can be flexibly used to silence, image the activity of, or activate select cell types that process temperature and humidity signals at the periphery and in the brain. Our expectation is that, once the key foundational work has been completed, our reagents will help us and others to design powerful comparative studies to establish conservation and divergence between this extremophile species and its laboratory relative D. melanogaster, and ultimately help identify general principles used in sensory processing by all animals.