Analysis of Odorant Receptor Genes

描述(由申请人提供)：本项目的目标是阐明嗅觉系统的基本原理、功能和组织。特别是，它试图解释气味编码的逻辑和编码它们的系统的分子组织。该实验计划利用果蝇黑腹果蝇作为模型系统，可以对个体嗅觉细胞进行深入的分子遗传分析和生理测量。该项目通过三个具体目标解决气味编码的分子和细胞逻辑。第一个目标是定义在活体表达系统中相对于100种气味的几乎整个触角受体的反应光谱和时间动力学，并确定这些受体是否可以执行简单的逻辑运算。其目的是解决有关气味编码机制的核心问题。第二个目标是将气味感受器映射到神经元，目的是测试一个受体-一个神经元规则描述嗅觉系统组织的程度。第三个目的是验证气味受体基因家族的两个成员编码抑制交配行为的信息素受体的假设。昆虫携带的疾病每年折磨着数亿人，其中许多昆虫通过嗅觉线索定位它们的宿主和配偶。在了解嗅觉和信息素接收方面的进展可能会导致控制这些人类疾病的昆虫媒介的新方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to elucidate basic principles of olfactory system function and organization. In particular, it seeks to explain the logic by which odors are encoded and the molecular organization of the system that encodes them. The experimental plan takes advantage of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system, which allows incisive molecular genetic analysis and physiological measurement of individual olfactory cells. The project addresses the molecular and cellular logic of odor coding through three specific aims. The first aim is to define the response spectrum and temporal dynamics of virtually the entire repertoire of antennal receptors with respect to a panel of 100 odorants in an in vivo expression system, and to determine whether the receptors can carry out simple logical operations. The aim is designed to address central questions about the mechanism of odor coding. The second aim is to map odor receptors to neurons, with the goal of testing the extent to which the one receptor-one neuron rule describes olfactory system organization. The third aim is to test the hypothesis that two members of the odor receptor gene family encode pheromone receptors that suppress mating behavior. Diseases carried by insects afflict hundreds of millions of people every year, and many of these insects locate their human hosts and their mates through olfactory cues. Advances in the understanding of olfactory and pheromonal reception could lead to new means of controlling these insect vectors of human disease.