preview

Neuron Synthesis

Decent Essays

The papers Integrating the molecular and cellular basis of odor coding in the Drosophila antenna and The receptors and coding logic for bitter taste try to understand how sensory neurons interacting with chemicals produce the sensation of smell or taste in the brain. With chemosensation, a chemical molecule binds to a receptor neuron, where transduction occurs. An action potential can be generated which can travel along interneurons until it reaches the brain, which can process the information and perceive a specific smell or taste. While all the steps from reception to perception are important, both papers focus on receptor neurons and their role in chemosensation. Integrating the molecular and cellular basis of odor coding in the Drosophila antenna looks at mapping the olfactory system using Drosophila as a model organism. Or genes encode olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) which map to a neuron class. The neuron projects to a specific glomerulus, and the signal eventually gets to the brain. This paper demonstrates three methods of mapping a receptor to a neuron and odor and uses them to show that Or22a receptor maps to the ab3A neuron and that Or47a receptor maps to the ab5B neuron. Dobritsa et al. also found …show more content…

Beyond that, however, these papers are not explicit in describing the importance and application of chemosensation research, especially the paper using Drosophila. In most cases, animal models are used to understand processes within humans, but
Dobritsa et al. acknowledge two important differences between human and Drosophila olfactory systems – that axonal pathfinding of ORNs to glomeruli occur at different life cycle stages and that the number of ORNs in glomeruli differ by more than an order of magnitude. Question arise about how much of the insight gained from these papers can be extended to humans as well as other sensory

Get Access