The long-term goal of this project is to elucidate basic principles of taste system function and organization. The experimental plan takes advantage of the fruit fly Drosophila as a model system, which allows powerful molecular genetic analysis and physiological measurement of individual taste cells. Understanding of insect taste may also be useful in controlling insect vectors of human disease, which receive gustatory cues from their human hosts. The project addresses the molecular and cellular logic of taste coding through three specific aims.
The first aim i s to construct a functional map of the taste organs, through physiological recordings from the fly's taste sensilla. This analysis should determine the number of functionally distinguishable taste sensilla and the extent to which the organization of neurons within these sensilla is stereotyped.
The second aim i s to elucidate the molecular underpinnings of this cellular organization by mapping individual Gr (Gustatory receptor) proteins to identified taste cells. This analysis will test the hypothesis that individual taste cells express multiple taste receptors, and that some receptors are expressed in more than one neuron per sensillum.
The third aim i s to identify ligands for selected Gr genes, through genetic and heterologous expression analysis. The plan is designed to investigate the tuning breadth of taste receptors, a critical issue in taste coding, and to allow further testing of the hypothesis that individual taste neurons express multiple functional receptors.
| Kwon, Jae Young; Dahanukar, Anupama; Weiss, Linnea A et al. (2014) A map of taste neuron projections in the Drosophila CNS. J Biosci 39:565-74 |
| Koh, Tong-Wey; He, Zhe; Gorur-Shandilya, Srinivas et al. (2014) The Drosophila IR20a clade of ionotropic receptors are candidate taste and pheromone receptors. Neuron 83:850-65 |
| Weiss, Linnea A; Dahanukar, Anupama; Kwon, Jae Young et al. (2011) The molecular and cellular basis of bitter taste in Drosophila. Neuron 69:258-72 |
| Montague, Shelby A; Mathew, Dennis; Carlson, John R (2011) Similar odorants elicit different behavioral and physiological responses, some supersustained. J Neurosci 31:7891-9 |
| Kwon, Jae Young; Dahanukar, Anupama; Weiss, Linnea A et al. (2011) Molecular and cellular organization of the taste system in the Drosophila larva. J Neurosci 31:15300-9 |
| Tom, W; de Bruyne, M; Haehnel, M et al. (2011) Disruption of olfactory receptor neuron patterning in Scutoid mutant Drosophila. Mol Cell Neurosci 46:252-61 |
| Bai, Lei; Carlson, John R (2010) Distinct functions of acj6 splice forms in odor receptor gene choice. J Neurosci 30:5028-36 |
| Carey, Allison F; Wang, Guirong; Su, Chih-Ying et al. (2010) Odorant reception in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Nature 464:66-71 |
| Yao, C Andrea; Carlson, John R (2010) Role of G-proteins in odor-sensing and CO2-sensing neurons in Drosophila. J Neurosci 30:4562-72 |
| Bai, Lei; Goldman, Aaron L; Carlson, John R (2009) Positive and negative regulation of odor receptor gene choice in Drosophila by acj6. J Neurosci 29:12940-7 |
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