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

项目总结： 我们的最终目标是阐明大脑中感觉处理是如何在单个细胞和 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 有助于将沙漠苍蝇作为一种新的比较物种引入的神经遗传试剂 研究温湿度感知和偏爱的神经生物学模型系统。我们将使用 CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑技术和定点整合产生的莫杰文氏菌菌株 可灵活地用于静音、显示其活动或激活处理温度和 外周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来建立 这种极端生物与其实验室近缘黑腹毛虫之间的保守和分化， 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.