Analysis of Odorant Receptor Genes

本项目的目标是阐明嗅觉系统功能和组织的基本原理。在……里面 特别是，它试图解释气味编码的逻辑和气味的分子组织 对它们进行编码的系统。这个实验计划利用了果蝇黑腹果蝇 作为一个模型系统，它允许深入的分子遗传分析和生理测量 单个嗅觉细胞。 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 目的是定义几乎整个天线曲目的响应谱和时间动力学 与体内表达系统中的100种气味物质的受体进行比较，并确定 受体可以执行简单的逻辑运算。其目的是解决核心问题。 关于气味编码的机制。 第二个目标是将气味感受器映射到神经元，目的是测试气味感受器在多大程度上 受体一神经元规则描述了嗅觉系统的组织结构。 第三个目标是检验气味受体基因家族的两个成员编码的假设 抑制交配行为的信息素受体。 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人类宿主和配偶。生物多样性研究的新进展 嗅觉和信息素的接收可能会导致控制这些人类昆虫媒介的新方法 疾病。

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.