in vivo live imaging for sex pheromone information presentation neural mechanism in Drosophila olfaction

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24780048
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied entomology
• Research Institution: Juntendo University (2013-2014); Kyoto University (2012)
• Principal Investigator: INOSHITA Tsuyoshi 順天堂大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 研究員 (20601206)
• Research Collaborator: IMAI Yuzuru 順天堂大学, 医学研究科, 先任准教授 (30321730) ; EJIMA Aki 東京大学, 農業生命科学研究科, 特任講師 (00548571)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ショウジョウバエ / 性フェロモン / 嗅覚 / 生体イメージング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Olfactory information plays key roles in Drosophila courtship behavior, but the whole picture of pheromonal compounds and their neural basis of olfaction are not clarified.
This study established in vivo live imaging system to record olfactory responses and visualized responding pattern to cuticlar extracts that include pheromonal chemicals. Cuticlar extracts excited broad-characteristic patterns those are reflected their sex, maturity and courtship conditions in olfactory glomeruli. Further specific olfactory receptor expressing neurons discriminated sex by using olfactory information of fly extracts with food odors. These results suggest that neural basis of olfaction for courtship mate discrimination utilize olfactory information of pheromones and foods in Drosophila.

Free Research Field

神経科学