Smith Dean P
Department of Pharmacology and Center for Basic Neuroscience, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75390-9111, USA.
Pflugers Arch. 2007 Aug;454(5):749-58. doi: 10.1007/s00424-006-0190-2. Epub 2007 Jan 5.
Drosophila melanogaster has proven to be a useful model system to probe the mechanisms underlying the detection, discrimination, and perception of volatile odorants. The relatively small receptor repertoire of 62 odorant receptors makes the goal of understanding odor responses from the total receptor repertoire approachable in this system, and recent work has been directed toward this goal. In addition, new work not only sheds light but also raises more questions about the initial steps in odor perception in this system. Odorant receptor genes in Drosophila are predicted to encode seven transmembrane receptors, but surprising data suggest that these receptors may be inverted in the plasma membrane compared to classical G-protein coupled receptors. Finally, although some Drosophila odorant receptors are activated directly by odorant molecules, detection of a volatile pheromone, 11-cis vaccenyl acetate requires an extracellular adapter protein called LUSH for activation of pheromone sensitive neurons. Because pheromones are used by insects to trigger mating and other behaviors, these insights may herald new approaches to control behavior in pathogenic and agricultural pest insects.
黑腹果蝇已被证明是一个有用的模型系统，可用于探究挥发性气味物质的检测、辨别和感知背后的机制。相对较少的62种气味受体组成的受体库，使得从整个受体库的角度理解气味反应这一目标在该系统中具有可行性，并且近期的研究工作一直朝着这个目标进行。此外，新的研究不仅揭示了该系统中气味感知初始步骤的相关情况，还提出了更多问题。果蝇中的气味受体基因预计编码七次跨膜受体，但令人惊讶的数据表明，与经典的G蛋白偶联受体相比，这些受体在质膜中的方向可能是相反的。最后，尽管一些果蝇气味受体可被气味分子直接激活，但挥发性信息素11-顺式醋酸vaccenyl的检测需要一种名为LUSH的细胞外衔接蛋白来激活信息素敏感神经元。由于昆虫利用信息素来触发交配和其他行为，这些见解可能预示着控制致病昆虫和农业害虫行为的新方法。
