Prof B Hansson, Dr S Lavista-Llanos
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Background: Many odors trigger innate behaviors in animals, attracting them towards food sources and mate-partners, or deterring them from predators and pathogens. In insects, odor detection occurs at olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) housed in hair-like structures (i.e.: sensilla) covering the olfactory organs. Drosophila OSNs typically express one or a small number of olfactory receptors of either odorant receptor (OR) or ionotropic receptor (IR) type.
The ORs determine the tuning breath of the OSNs. In general, OSNs sitting in basiconic sensilla detect food odors, while those sitting in trichoid sensilla detect pheromones and fly-emitted compounds. Interestingly, pheromone-ORs do not function when ectopically expressed in food-responding OSNs, due to specific proteins missing in the neurons and odorant binding proteins (OBPs), secreted by supporting glia cells, missing in the lymph. Inversely, food odors can modulate the native OSN sensitivity towards pheromones.
In spite of the OR gene family having been described more than ten years ago, we still hold a poor understanding of the olfactory code (the link between odorant structure, neural activity, and odor perception). A main drawback has been the scarce information that we have on specific genes expressed by the OSNs and its supporting cells due to the hurdle to physically isolate these cells for their characterization. To overcome this difficulty, this project will apply a ribonomics approach to get hold of the discrete transcriptome of each OSN.
Project Description: Our goal is to grasp the molecular basis behind the modulation of the sensitivity to pheromones. Making use of powerful state-of-the-arts genetic tools in Drosophila we will isolate the mRNA from discrete populations of OSNs (i.e.: ~50 types of OR-expressing OSNs) for its further sequencing (RNA-seq). By genetically manipulating (i.e.: mutations, ectopic expression) those genes that are differentially expressed in the different OSNs, we aim to define key players shaping the sensitivity of OSNs to odors and pheromones. Ultimately, this information will shed light on the so-far elusive olfactory code.
Candidate profile: Molecular biology, Drosophila genetics (not exclusive).
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