POWRE: Molecular Characterization of Sgnal-Transduction Mechanisms in Moth Olfaction

了解信息素感知的分子细节对于理解化学感觉的许多基本原理是必不可少的。 大多数无脊椎动物依靠嗅觉作为主要的感觉方式，因此它们的嗅觉系统已经发展到极端敏感和特异性的水平，使它们能够识别与行为相关的化合物的微小浓度。 因此，探索无脊椎动物的信号转导机制不仅有助于揭示许多基本原理，而且有助于理解更复杂的过程中嗅觉在高等生物。为了获得全面的知识，配体-蛋白质相互作用参与感知的行为化学物质，博士Mohanty将尝试一个详细的结构特征的相互作用的信息素与信息素结合蛋白（PBP）。 PBP是信息素进入蛾触角时遇到的第一个蛋白质。 为了更好地了解这种蛋白质的结合基序和作为配体识别元素的结构特征，Mohanty博士使用高分辨率核磁共振（NMR）光谱法开始了对PBP-信息素复合物的结构研究。这个POWRE奖不仅将支持我们对信息素结合的理解的重大进展，它还将促进Mohanty博士的职业发展，使她能够获得新的NMR和分子生物学技术方面的培训和经验，并将其应用于她对蛾嗅觉信号转导过程的研究。 在这样做，她将追求与其他领先的科学家在结构生物学和嗅觉互利的研究合作，她将成为一个成熟的，积极的参与者在州立大学的纽约在斯托尼布鲁克新成立的结构生物学计划。

An understanding of the molecular details of pheromone perception is essential to understand many fundamental principles of chemosensation. Most invertebrates rely on olfaction as the principal sensory modality, so their olfactory systems have developed to a level of extreme sensitivity and specificity that enables them to identify minute concentrations of behaviorally relevant compounds. Thus, exploring the signal-transduction mechanisms of invertebrates will not only help unravel many fundamental principles but also contribute to understanding the more-complex process of olfaction in higher organisms.To gain thorough knowledge of ligand-protein interactions involved in perception of behavioral chemicals, Dr. Mohanty will attempt a detailed structural characterization of the interactions of pheromone with pheromone-binding protein (PBP). PBP is the first protein that a pheromone encounters when it enters moth antennae. To better understand the binding motif of this protein and the structural features that serve as recognition elements of a ligand, Dr. Mohanty has initiated this structural study of PBP-pheromone complex using high-resolution nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.This POWRE award will not only support significant advances in our understanding of pheromone binding, it will also facilitate Dr. Mohanty's career advancement by allowing her to obtain training and experience in novel NMR and molecular-biology techniques and to apply them to her research on the signal-transduction process in moth olfaction. In doing so, she will pursue a mutually beneficial research collaboration with other leading scientists in both structural biology and olfaction, and she will become a full-fledged, active participant in the newly established structural-biology program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.