Work

Candidate Taste Receptors in Drosophila

Year: 2000

Type: article

Abstract: Little is known about the molecular mechanisms of taste perception in animals, particularly the initial events of taste signaling. A large and diverse family of seven transmembrane domain proteins was identified from the Drosophila genome database with a computer algorithm that identifies proteins on the basis of structure. Eighteen of 19 genes examined were expressed in the Drosophila labellum, a gustatory organ of the proboscis. Expression was not detected in a variety of other tissues. The genes were not expressed in the labellum of a Drosophila mutant, pox-neuro70, in which taste neurons are eliminated. Tissue specificity of expression of these genes, along with their structural similarity, supports the possibility that the family encodes a large and divergent family of taste receptors.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5459.1830

Authors: Peter J. Clyne, Coral G. Warr, John R. Carlson

Institution: Yale University

Language: English

Topic: Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Award: Genetic and Molecular Analysis of Olfaction