Taste Receptor Genes and Sensory Coding

味觉受体基因和感官编码

• 批准号: 6989039
• 负责人: Hubert O Amrein
• 金额: $ 30.79万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-01-01 至 2008-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6989039
• 关键词: Drosophilidae; RNA interference; behavior test; behavioral /social science research tag; biological signal transduction; cell surface receptors; chemoreceptors; cues; electrophysiology; ethology; gene expression; genetic mapping; olfactions; polymerase chain reaction; sensory mechanism; taste

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our long-term objective is to understand how animals recognize chemical cues present in the environment or released by mates, competitors and predators and how these cues mediate innate behaviors. Chemosensory perception provides all organisms, from bacteria to humans, with essential information about the chemical composition of the external world. In most animals, this 'chemical world' is perceived by two distinct sensory modalities: the sense of taste (gustation) and the sense of smell (olfaction). Insects show a wide range of feeding preferences that can be extremely narrow and be restricted on a single host plant, or fairly broad and include many plants and even animal cadavers. Some insects, including Drosophila, have remarkably similar taste preferences as mammals. Our general strategy is to utilize the genetically amenable system of Drosophila melanogaster to study the perception of taste. Drosophila gustatory neurons express divergent members of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that interact with non-volatile, soluble ligands. Activation of these cells is propagated to specific taste centers in the brain, where the received information is translated into a behavioral output (feeding/sucking, avoidance, courtship). Behavioral investigations and electrophysiological studies have indicated that Drosophila has a well-developed taste sensory system that can recognizes a large number of different substrates (ligands) using a large family of about 70 gustatory receptor (Gr) genes encoding divergent GPCRs. Expression studies of a small number of Gr genes revealed that a given gene is expressed in a distinct small set (1- 4 %) of gustatory neurons, creating a peripheral map in the insect gustatory system. Thus, cellular segregation of individual taste receptor genes provides a concept for high discriminatory power of different substrates that are preferentially recognized by cognate receptors. Hence, these observations have, led to the hypothesis that Drosophila and other insects recognize and distinguish significantly more taste qualities than mammals. To test this hypothesis, we propose a systematic analysis of the Drosophila taste receptor gene family by determining the global Gr expression profile and their ligand specificity. Moreover, we propose to test whether the expression map in the peripheral sensory system is translated into a functional map in the subesophageal ganglion. This research proposal has been modified based on the reviewer's recommendations, recently published reports and new data generated in our laboratory.

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的长期目标是了解动物如何识别环境中存在的化学提示或由伴侣，竞争者和掠食者释放的化学提示以及这些提示如何介导先天行为。 化学感知感知提供了从细菌到人类的所有生物，并提供有关外部世界化学成分的基本信息。在大多数动物中，这种“化学世界”是通过两种不同的感官方式来感知的：味觉（味）和嗅觉（嗅觉）。昆虫显示出广泛的喂养偏好，这些偏好可能非常狭窄，并且在单个宿主植物上受到限制，或者相当宽，其中包括许多植物，甚至包括动物尸体。一些昆虫，包括果蝇，具有与哺乳动物相似的味道偏好。 我们的一般策略是利用果蝇果蝇的遗传正定系统来研究味道的感知。果蝇味神经元表达与非挥发性，可溶性配体相互作用的G蛋白偶联受体（GPCR）的不同成员。这些细胞的激活传播到大脑中的特定味觉中心，其中收到的信息转化为行为输出（喂养/吮吸，避免，求爱）。行为研究和电生理学研究表明，果蝇具有良好的味觉感觉系统，可以使用编码不同GPCR的大约70个阵风受体（GR）基因的大家庭识别大量不同的底物（配体）。对少数GR基因的表达研究表明，给定的基因在味觉的神经元的不同集（1-4％）中表达，在昆虫味道系统中形成外围图。因此，单个味觉受体基因的细胞分离为不同底物的高歧视能力提供了一个概念，这些底物优先通过同源受体识别。因此，这些观察结果提出了这样的假设：果蝇和其他昆虫比哺乳动物识别和区分味道明显更多。为了检验这一假设，我们通过确定全局GR表达谱及其配体特异性，提出对果蝇味道受体基因家族的系统分析。此外，我们建议测试外围感觉系统中的表达图是否转化为食道下神经节中的功能图。根据审阅者的建议，最近发布的报告以及我们实验室中生成的新数据，对该研究提案进行了修改。