Molecular basis of insect attraction to human odorants

传播疾病的昆虫通常通过嗅觉线索来探测人类，因此有必要更好地了解气味是如何被编码并引发昆虫行为的。这项提议的长期目标是阐明昆虫嗅觉信号的基本过程，特别关注嗅觉神经元的一个子集，即已知能探测人类气味的腔视神经元。鉴于昆虫嗅觉系统的进化守恒，我们建议利用果蝇的遗传和行为工具来了解这些气味吸引的分子基础。

Insects that transmit disease often detect humans through olfactory cues, making it imperative to better understand how odors are encoded and elicit behavior in insects. The long term goal of this proposal is to illuminate fundamental processes in insect olfactory signaling, with particular focus on a subset of olfactory neurons, coeloconic neurons, known to detect human odorants. Given the evolutionary conservation of olfactory systems amongst insects, we propose to make use of the genetic and behavioral tools available in Drosophila to understand the molecular basis of attraction to these odorants. In my first aim, I will expand the range of odors known to activate coeloconic neurons by characterizing their responses to additional odorants using electrophysiological recordings. In particular, I will focus on amines and carboxylic acids, attractive odors found in human emanations. In my second aim, I will dissect the behavioral significance of coeloconic neuron signaling by utilizing genetic manipulations and a well-characterized behavioral assay with adult flies. Finally, I will identify additional signaling components enriched in coeloconic ORNs that are necessary for olfactory receptor activity by probing the function and localization of candidate genes obtained from an RNA Sequencing screen. Together, these experiments are designed to elucidate molecular mechanisms of olfactory signaling and the means by which environmental signals are transformed into behavior in insects.