THE GENETIC BASIS OF VARIATION IN OLFACTORY BEHAVIOR

许多生物通过嗅觉信号从环境中获取关键信息。例如，化学信号被用于食物定位、物种识别和配偶识别。因此，感知和响应这些信号的能力对生物体的生存和繁殖至关重要。这项研究的最终目标是了解自然种群中行为变异的遗传基础，因为它与化学通讯有关。该项目的具体目标是：(1)表征黑腹龙D共等渗系中的嗅觉受损（smi）位点，以及(2)研究这些位点的分子变异如何影响自然种群中气味引导行为的变化。这些研究将首次提供特定基因中单核苷酸多态性对自然种群气味引导行为影响的信息。

Many organisms obtain critical information from the environment through olfactory signals. For instance, chemical signals are used for food localization, species identification, and mate recognition. Thus, the ability to perceive and respond to these signals is essential for an organism's survival and reproduction. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to understand the genetic basis for variation in behavior in natural populations as it relates to chemical communication. The specific aims of this project are: (1) To characterize smell impaired (smi) loci in co-isotonic lines of D, melanogaster, and (2) To investigate how molecular variation in these loci contributes to variation in odor-guide behavior in a natural population. These studies will provide for the first time information about the effect of single nucleotide polymorphism's in defined genes on odor-guide behavior in natural population.