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Although sorely underappreciated in humans, olfaction is vital for most organisms in their pursuit of food, mates, and spawning sites, but also for recognition of individuals, kin, nest mates, and for structuring social hierarchies. Olfactory systems are to some extent an evolutionary product of specific odour environments, but the significance of this relationship is not well established. Most animal groups have great similarities in the design of their olfactory systems. Insects, with their enormous diversity and high degree of specialization to specific hosts or habitats, provide good models to study general properties of olfactory systems, in parallel with adaptations to specific olfactory environments. This is especially true for the fruit fly Drosophila, which provides access to techniques for genetic modification and genome sequences from many related species.
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Highly specialized olfactory systems provide unfailing mate recognition! In this project, insect olfactory systems and their relationships to specific odour environments will be studied on many levels. Functional properties of different elements involved in olfactory detection and integration of olfactory information will be characterized, ranging from receptor proteins and other elements of the transduction cascade, to olfactory interneurons in the brain. Theoretical predictions for how insects should behave in different contexts will be matched against behavioural studies in order to elucidate the essential odour elements in their natural environment. Neurophysiological and behavioural changes that have occurred over a few generations up to millions of years will be characterized, in order to study adaptations to specific olfactory environments.
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Different types of neurons, from receptor neurons to interneurons, have specific functions in processing olfactory information. The project utilizes a variety of different techniques, including molecular biology, electrophysiology, optical imaging, neuroanatomy and immunocytochemistry, theoretical modelling, phylogenetic and population genetic analyses, chemical identification of odour constituents, and behavioural studies.
Funding
The Linnaeus initiative "Insect Chemical Ecology, Ethology and Evolution" IC-E3.
Personnel
Mattias Larsson, Agnieszka Ruebenbauer, Lina Bryngelsson, Hamida Khbaish.
Collaboration
Emmanuelle Jaquin (INRA, France), Christer Löfstedt, (Lund University, Sweden), Åsa Lankinen (Lund University, Sweden), Roger Härdling (Lund University, Sweden).
Selected references
Larsson MC, Hallberg E, Kozlov MV, Francke W, Löfstedt C, Hansson BS (2002). Specialized olfactory receptor neurons mediating intra- and interspecific chemical communication in leafminer moths Eriocrania spp. (Lepidoptera: Eriocraniidae).
Journal of Experimental Biology 205:989-998.
Larsson MC, Hansson BS, Strausfeld NJ (2004). A simple mushroom body in an African scarabid beetle. Journal of Comparative Neurology 478:219-232.
Larsson MC, Domingos AI, Jones WD, Chiappe ME, Amrein H, Vosshall LB (2004). Or83b encodes a broadly expressed odorant receptor essential for Drosophila olfaction
Neuron 43:703-714.
Lankinen Å, Larsson MC. Conflicting selection pressures on reproductive functions and speciation in plants. Evolutionary Ecology. In press. Back to Projects >>> |
