Student Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

RU Laboratory

Vosshall Laboratory

Abstract

The ability to detect and respond to environmental cues is the fundamental start of any brain function, computation, or behavior. For my doctoral work, I studied chemosensation in the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can detect cues including human odor, carbon dioxide, and insect repellents. Mosquitoes are human’s deadliest predator,causing 700,000 deaths every year through the transmission of malaria parasites and arboviruses including dengue.My research has focused on the molecular underpinnings of mosquito chemosensory cell types. In olfaction, research following the cloning of the first odorant receptors in1991 has shown that each mouse olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) expresses a single odorant receptor. Early work in Drosophila melanogaster flies reported a similar organization, although some key differences were noted. Insects detect odorants with three families of ionotropic ligand-gated ion channels encoded by three large multi-genefamilies: Odorant Receptors (ORs), Ionotropic Receptors (IRs), and Gustatory Receptors (GRs) each of which form heteromultimeric ligand-gated ion channels composed of co-receptor and ligand-selective receptor subunits. These families were thought to be mutually exclusively expressed in non-overlapping OSNs.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The Rockefeller University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

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