required reading:

Park SK. et al. (2002) Inactivation of olfactory sensilla of a single morphological type differentially affects the response of Drosophila to odors. J Neurobiol 51(3): 248-260
pdf-file

Questions:

1. Describe the three types of sensilla found in the antennae and maxillary palps in both the mutant and non-mutant forms.

2. Park et. al. found no differences in the glomeruli of the antennal lobe of BS reaper and the control. What does this suggest about the BS reaper mutant defect?

3. Describe the electrophysiological techniques used by Park et. al. to assess the response of individual sensilla to various odorants (Fig 3A).

4. Could one be bold and make a general statement that different sensilla specify different classes of compounds? Why or why not?

5. What could be the functional significance of having different types of sensilla respond differently to various odorants?

6. Park suggests that there are no differences in the antennal lobes of mutant and non-mutant Drosophila. How did they assess this and are there any problems with these methods and if so what are they?

7. Describe the behavioral assay. Is it a valid test for the experiment in question?

PDF-file of power-point lecture (about 0.7 MB)

optional background reading:
deBruyne M, Foster K, JR Carlson (2001) Odor coding in the Drosophila antenna. Neuron 30:537-552. pdf-file
Voshhall LB, Wong AM, Axel R (2000) An olfactory sensory map in the fly brain. Cell 102:147-159. pdf-file
Stocker R (2001) Drosophila as a focus in olfactory research: mapping of olfactory sensilla by fine structure, odor specificity, odorant receptor expression, and central connectivity. Micros Res Technique 55:283-296. pdf-file
Scott K et al. (2001) A chemosensory gene family encoding candidate gustatory and olfactory receptors in Drosophila. Cell 104:661-673. pdf-file
Devaud J-M, Acebes A, Ferrus A (2001) Odor exposure causes central adaptation and morphological changes in selected olfactory glomeruli in Drosophila. J Neurosci 21(16)6274-6282. pdf-file

Links:

Lecture 19: Chemical senses
deBruyne Lab
look up those flygenes: the interactive fly
example: olfactory binding proteins in Drosophila: lush

chemically modulated flight in moths