Journal article
Post-eclosion odor experience modifies olfactory receptor neuron coding in Drosophila
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.107(21), pp.9855-9860
05/25/2010
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003856107
PMCID: PMC2906832
PMID: 20448199
Abstract
Olfactory responses of
Drosophila
undergo pronounced changes after eclosion. The flies develop attraction to odors to which they are exposed and aversion to other odors. Behavioral adaptation is correlated with changes in the firing pattern of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). In this article, we present an information-theoretic analysis of the firing pattern of ORNs. Flies reared in a synthetic odorless medium were transferred after eclosion to three different media: (
i
) a synthetic medium relatively devoid of odor cues, (
ii
) synthetic medium infused with a single odorant, and (
iii
) complex cornmeal medium rich in odors. Recordings were made from an identified sensillum (type II), and the Jensen–Shannon divergence (D
JS
) was used to assess quantitatively the differences between ensemble spike responses to different odors. Analysis shows that prolonged exposure to ethyl acetate and several related esters increases sensitivity to these esters but does not improve the ability of the fly to distinguish between them. Flies exposed to cornmeal display varied sensitivity to these odorants and at the same time develop greater capacity to distinguish between odors. Deprivation of odor experience on an odorless synthetic medium leads to a loss of both sensitivity and acuity. Rich olfactory experience thus helps to shape the ORNs response and enhances its discriminative power. The experiments presented here demonstrate an experience-dependent adaptation at the level of the receptor neuron.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Post-eclosion odor experience modifies olfactory receptor neuron coding in Drosophila
- Creators
- Atulya Iyengar - Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in NeuroscienceTuhin Subhra Chakraborty - , Bangalore 560065Sarit Pati Goswami - , Bangalore 560065Chun-Fang Wu - Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in NeuroscienceObaid Siddiqi - , Bangalore 560065
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.107(21), pp.9855-9860
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.1003856107
- PMID
- 20448199
- PMCID
- PMC2906832
- NLM abbreviation
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- eISSN
- 1091-6490
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/25/2010
- Academic Unit
- Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Biology
- Record Identifier
- 9984070843902771
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