In vivo functional expression system for Drosophila gustatory receptors

果蝇味觉受体体内功能表达系统

• 批准号: 8774223
• 负责人: Rebecca Delventhal
• 金额: $ 3.92万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-04 至 2015-12-03
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8774223
• 关键词: Address; Aedes; Affect; Agricultural Crops; Agriculture; Animal Model; Animals; Anopheles Genus; Anopheles gambiae; Behavior; Code; Communicable Diseases; Complex; Cues; Culex (Genus); Culicidae; Dengue; Drosophila genus; Drosophila gustatory receptor; Family; Food; Goals; Health; Human; Human Activities; Individual; Insect Control; Insecta; Lead; Leg; Ligand Binding; Mediating; Methods; Molecular; Molecular Genetics; Neurons; Odors; Organism; Orthologous Gene; Partner in relationship; Pattern; Peripheral; Plants; Property; Resources; Source; Sum; System; Taste Buds; Taste Perception; Techniques; Testing; Time; Tissues; Transgenic Organisms; West Nile virus; Yellow Fever; base; design; disease transmission; driving behavior; feeding; fight against; improved; in vivo; interest; novel; olfactory receptor; receptor; receptor function; research study; response; taste system; tool

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Insect behaviors driven by chemosensation, such as host-seeking, feeding, and mating, have a major impact on human activities. Insects contribute to the spread of a variety of infectious diseases through feeding on human hosts, and they also cause a great deal of agricultural loss through feeding on crops. Insects locate their human or plant hosts using olfactory cues, and they decide whether or not to feed based on gustatory cues found on the host. Bitter compounds are of particular interest because they are behaviorally aversive and can act as feeding deterrents. Although significant progress has been made in understanding insect odor coding at the periphery, much less is known about taste coding, particularly for the sensing of bitter compounds. In contrast to olfactory receptors, the extensive co-expression of bitter receptors in taste neurons makes determination of individual receptor response profiles exceedingly difficult. To address this problem, I have devised an in vivo functional expression system in Drosophila, the "decoder bitter neuron system", that allows me to express an individual bitter receptor of the gustatory receptor (Gr) family and record the responses it confers to a wide array of bitter compounds. [I have chosen Drosophila as the model organism because of the wealth of unique genetic and molecular tools available that allowed me to design and develop this system.] I will use this "decoder" bitter neuron system to analyze different aspects of bitter Gr function, such as tuning breadth and sensitivity, as well as investigate possible interactions of co-expressed Grs. [I will also conduct a pilot analysis of a mosquito predicted bitter Gr, expressed in my system.] This may lead to a greater understanding of how insects, in general, encode bitter tastant identity, which could be applied to insect pests and aid in developing improved feeding deterrents to fight against agricultural crop damage and the spread of infectious disease.

描述（由申请人提供）：由化学感觉驱动的昆虫行为，如寻找宿主、进食和交配，对人类活动有重大影响。昆虫以人类宿主为食，促进了多种传染病的传播，也以农作物为食，造成大量农业损失。昆虫利用嗅觉线索定位人类或植物宿主，并根据宿主身上发现的味觉线索决定是否进食。苦味化合物特别令人感兴趣，因为它们在行为上令人厌恶，并且可以起到摄食威慑作用。尽管在理解昆虫外围气味编码方面已经取得了重大进展，但对味道编码（尤其是苦味化合物的感知）知之甚少。与嗅觉受体相反，味觉神经元中苦味受体的广泛共表达使得确定个体受体反应谱变得极其困难。为了解决这个问题，我在果蝇中设计了一种体内功能表达系统，即“解码器苦味神经元系统”，它使我能够表达味觉受体（Gr）家族的单个苦味受体，并记录它对多种苦味化合物。 [我选择果蝇作为模式生物，因为有丰富的独特遗传和分子工具可供我设计和开发这个系统。]我将使用这个“解码器”苦味神经元系统来分析苦味 Gr 功能的不同方面，例如调谐宽度和灵敏度，以及 研究共表达的 Grs 之间可能的相互作用。 [我还将对我的系统中表达的预测苦味 Gr 的蚊子进行初步分析。] 这可能会导致人们更好地了解昆虫一般如何编码促苦味剂的身份，这可以应用于害虫并有助于开发改进的饲喂威慑措施，以对抗农作物的损害和传染病的传播。