March 21st, 2011
Her winning poster presentation is entitled, “Functional Dissection of Odorant Binding Protein Genes in Drosophila melanogaster .”
Most organisms rely on olfaction for survival and reproduction. The olfactory system of Drosophila melanogaster is one of the best characterized chemosensory systems and serves as a prototype for understanding insect olfaction. Olfaction in Drosophila is mediated by multigene families of odorant receptors and odorant binding proteins (OBPs). Whereas molecular response profiles of odorant receptors have been well documented, the contributions of OBPs to olfactory behavior remain largely unknown. Here, we used RNAi-mediated suppression of Obp gene expression and measurements of behavioral responses to 16 ecologically relevant odorants to systematically dissect the functions of 17 OBPs. We quantified the effectiveness of RNAi-mediate suppression by quantitative RT-PCR and used proteomic LC/MS/MS procedure to demonstrate target-specific suppression of OBPs expressed in the antennae. Our result show that the OBPs are essential for mediating olfactory behavioral responses and that targeted interference with OBP expression generates aberrant behavioral phenotypes that are sex-dependent. Behavioral analyses of flies in which expression of specific OBPs is systematically suppressed indicate that OBP-dependent odorant recognition is combinatorial. (Supported by NIH grant GM059496.)”
Shilpa is working under the guidance of Dr. Robert Anholt. She is the second Genetics PhD student in two years to win an award at the Symposium. Last years recipient of this award was April Wynn, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Franks. View her poster here.
