Synthetic Entomology

该奖项由MCB的系统和合成生物学计划以及CBET的生物技术、生化和生物质工程计划资助，将支持昆虫行为的研究。这个项目的主要目标是开发合成动物生物学的技术，并将它们应用于产生新的行为。果蝇，黑腹果蝇，是这些实验的合乎逻辑的起点，因为它被很好地理解，并且在实验中容易驯化。它有一个大脑和一个神经系统，所以它可以品尝、看、听、感觉气味以及触摸、学习和记忆。它拥有自然界中最复杂的驱动系统之一--控制飞行的能力。拟议中的实验将展示这些行为是如何被利用和设计的。特别是，其控制嗅觉的嗅觉系统将经过基因改造，因此产生的菌株将无法闻到除常用炸药以外的任何东西。这种苍蝇可以作为探测炸弹和地雷的自主生物传感系统。PIs将让所有级别的学生参与这一主题的跨学科研究，并与当地一群餐厅厨师合作，向公众传授风味和嗅觉背后的科学知识。技术描述：合成生物学家设计和构建有用的生物设备，但大多数人只研究微生物。包括黑腹果蝇在内的多细胞物种具有行为、感知、认知和记忆等复杂特征。研究人员提议改造一种果蝇，这种果蝇可以感知其他方式无法检测到的气味。研究人员培育出了一种表达家蚕醇受体的黑腹丝虫变种，家蚕醇是一种由蚕蛾产生的性引诱信息素。转基因果蝇体内的天然嗅觉感受器不能正常工作，所以不能因为食物或其他引诱剂的气味而分散对蚕豆的注意力。在这个项目中，研究人员将在培养细胞中表达昆虫气味受体，并开发一种功能测试(特定目标1)，设计更好地识别气味的嗅觉受体2，4，6-三硝基甲苯(TNT，特定目标2)，培育表达基因工程嗅觉受体的新苍蝇(特定目标3)，并展示它们行为的变化(相对于通常喜欢的气味物质苯甲醛，吸引TNT)。这些实验的结果将传达给合成生物学家(具体目标4)和普通公众(具体目标5)。这些结果将改善目前对昆虫嗅觉受体结构和功能的理解，昆虫嗅觉受体尚未结晶，与哺乳动物的嗅觉受体无关。更广泛地说，他们将把合成生物学的范围扩展到昆虫，并鼓励关于将工程方法应用于高等动物的辩论。

The award, funded by the Systems and Synthetic Biology Program in MCB and the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering Program in CBET, will support studies of insect behavior. The broad aim of this project is to develop techniques for synthetic animal biology, and to apply them to produce new behaviors. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is the logical starting point for these experiments because it is well understood and experimentally tractable. It has a brain and a nervous system, so it can taste, see, hear, sense odors and touch, learn and remember. It has one of the most sophisticated actuation systems found in nature-the capacity for controlled flight. The proposed experiments will show how these behaviors can be harnessed and engineered. In particular, its olfactory system, which governs its sense of smell, will be genetically modified, so that the resulting strain will not be able to smell anything except a commonly used explosive. Such flies could serve as autonomous biological sensing systems for the detection of bombs and land mines. The PIs will engage students at all levels in interdisciplinary research on this topic, and collaborate with a group of local restaurant chefs to teach the public about the science that underlies flavor and olfaction.Technical description: Synthetic biologists design and construct useful biological devices, but most work exclusively with microbes. Multi-cellular species including Drosophila melanogaster possess complex traits such as behavior, perception, cognition and memory. The investigators propose to engineer a fruit fly that senses otherwise undetectable odors. The investigators have bred a D. melanogaster variant that expresses the receptor for bombykol, a sex-attractant pheromone produced by the silk moth, Bombyx mori. The native olfactory receptor set does not function normally in the engineered fly, so it should not be distracted from bombykol by the smell of food or other attractants. In this project, the investigators will express insect odorant receptors in cultured cells, and develop an assay for function (Specific Aim 1), engineer olfactory receptors that better recognize an odorant, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT, Specific Aim 2), breed new flies that express the engineered olfactory receptor (Specific Aim 3), and t demonstrate the changes in their behavior (attraction to TNT over the normally favored odorant, benzaldehyde, Specific Aim 4). The results of these experiments will be communicated to synthetic biologists (Specific Aim 4) and the general public (Specific Aim 5). The results will improve the current understanding of the structure and function of insect olfactory receptors, which have not been crystallized and are unrelated to those of mammals. More generally, they will extend the scope of synthetic biology to insects and encourage debate about the application of engineering approaches to higher animals.