The Drosophila olfactory system presents a great opportunity to understand the general principles of wiring specificity, and how the wiring of neuronal circuits contributes to olfaction. In the Drosophila olfactory system, second order projection neurons (PNs) innervate specific glomeruli in the antennal lobe. We are exploring the molecular mechanisms by which PNs target their dendrites to specific glomeruli. Longitudinals lacking (lola) is a Zn-finger transcription factor identified as a putative regulator of axon guidance that splices to at least 20 unique isoforms. This proposal will further investigate the function of individual Lola isoforms in PN wiring specificity. The lola locus may prove a useful model to demonstrate the function of molecular diversity at the transcriptional level in wiring specificity. Specifically, I will 1. Perform a systematic expression analysis of individual lola isoforms in the AL using isoform specific RNA in-situ hybridization and immunostaining. 2. Generate new isoform-specific mutants for those isoforms expressed in PNs using homologous recombination, and test their function in PN wiring using MARCM analysis. 3. Generate isoform-specific UAS transgenes to test their ability to rescue isoform-specific mutants using MARCM mediated overexpression.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
5F31DC008277-03
Application #
7545864
Study Section
Communication Disorders Review Committee (CDRC)
Program Officer
Cyr, Janet
Project Start
2007-01-01
Project End
2009-12-31
Budget Start
2009-01-01
Budget End
2009-12-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$38,428
Indirect Cost
Name
Stanford University
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
009214214
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305
Chen, Sidi; Spletter, Maria; Ni, Xiaochun et al. (2012) Frequent recent origination of brain genes shaped the evolution of foraging behavior in Drosophila. Cell Rep 1:118-32
Li, Ling; Tasic, Bosiljka; Micheva, Kristina D et al. (2010) Visualizing the distribution of synapses from individual neurons in the mouse brain. PLoS One 5:e11503
Chou, Ya-Hui; Spletter, Maria L; Yaksi, Emre et al. (2010) Diversity and wiring variability of olfactory local interneurons in the Drosophila antennal lobe. Nat Neurosci 13:439-49
Spletter, Maria L; Luo, Liqun (2009) A new family of odorant receptors in Drosophila. Cell 136:23-5