Dr S Lavista-Llanos, Dr Markus Knaden
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Background: Insects rely on chemosensory information to assess their environment and achieve optimal responses that maximize their fitness, survival and reproduction. In the last twenty years, a substantial amount of work has progressed our knowledge on the detailed molecular and neuronal processes conveying detection and perception of olfactory and gustatory stimuli. Nevertheless, several olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and gustatory sensory neurons (GSNs) remain orphan: i.e.: natural ligands activating specific olfactory (ORs) and gustatory (GRs) receptors expressed by these neurons have not been described. Moreover, the lack of natural ligands prevails learning about the contribution that these orphan OSNs and GSNs have on fly behavior. This project aims to screen D. melanogaster new behaviors governed by orphan OSNs and GSNs.
Project Description: OSNs and GSNs ectopically expressing a non-native OR are functional and adept to respond to natural OR ligands. Taking advantage of this fact, we will apply state-of-the-art D. melanogaster genetic tools to ectopically express a narrowly tuned OR (ntOR) in orphan GSNs or OSNs, in otherwise ntOR-mutant flies. Firstly, we will perform in-depth physiological characterizations of the ntOR-ectopically expressing neurons (i.e.: immunofluorescence, electrophysiology, calcium imaging). In a second step, we will investigate the contribution that these orphan OSNs/GSNs have to canonical fly behaviour (i.e.: long- and short-range attraction, oviposition, courtship, proboscis extension), and to novel conducts of the flies, by preciously activating the orphan OSN/GSN with a natural ntOR ligand. In the last step, based on the novel behavioural information, we will screen for putative ‘natural ligands’ of the orphan OSN/OSN and test their contribution to the previously defined behaviours. By this, we aim to de-orphanize the given chemosensory neurons.
Candidate profile: Molecular biology, Drosophila genetics and behavior (not exclusive).
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