DoOR 2.0 - Comprehensive Mapping of Drosophila melanogaster Odorant Responses

Münch, Daniel; Galizia, C. Giovanni

doi:10.1038/srep21841

Cited by 205 publications

(274 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…6. Sensitivities of olfactory receptors appear to be lognormally distributed for (A) flies (33) and (B) humans (34). The histograms of the logarithms of n entries of the sensitivity matrix (orange) are compared with a normal distribution (blue) with the same mean and SD λ exp .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Receptor arrays optimized for natural odor statistics

Zwicker

Murugan

Brenner

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Natural odors typically consist of many molecules at different concentrations. It is unclear how the numerous odorant molecules and their possible mixtures are discriminated by relatively few olfactory receptors. Using an information theoretic model, we show that a receptor array is optimal for this task if it achieves two possibly conflicting goals: (i) Each receptor should respond to half of all odors and (ii) the response of different receptors should be uncorrelated when averaged over odors presented with natural statistics. We use these design principles to predict statistics of the affinities between receptors and odorant molecules for a broad class of odor statistics. We also show that optimal receptor arrays can be tuned to either resolve concentrations well or distinguish mixtures reliably. Finally, we use our results to predict properties of experimentally measured receptor arrays. Our work can thus be used to better understand natural olfaction, and it also suggests ways to improve artificial sensor arrays.iscrimination of olfactory signals occurs in a high-dimensional space of odor stimuli in which a large number of distinct molecules and their mixtures can be distinguished by a much smaller number of receptors (1-3). For example, humans have about 300 distinct olfactory receptors (4), which can sense at least 2,100 odorant molecules (5), and the real number might be much larger (1). Moreover, humans can differentiate between mixtures of up to 30 odorants (6). Such remarkable molecular discrimination is thought to use a combinatorial code (7,8), where typical odorant molecules bind to receptors of multiple types (1, 3). Each receptor type is expressed in many cells (9), and the information from all receptors of the same type is accumulated in corresponding glomeruli in the olfactory bulb (10, 11) (see Fig. 1A). The activity of a single glomerulus is thus the total signal of the associated receptor type, so the information about the odor is encoded in the activity pattern of the glomeruli (11,12). This activity pattern is interpreted by the brain to learn about the composition and the concentration of the inhaled odor. We here study how receptor arrays can maximize the transmitted information.It is known (13, 14) that the input−output characteristics of sensory apparatuses of many organisms are tailored to the statistics of the organism's natural environment to maximize information transmission. For example, in the visual circuit of the fly, the input−output relationship of neurons is matched to the cumulative distribution of the input distribution (13). Similar observations have since been made in many sensory systems (14, 15) and even in transcriptional regulation (16). In all these cases, the distinguishable outputs of the sensory system must be dedicated to equal parts of the input distribution, which is known as Laughlin's principle (13) or histogram equalization (17). Intuitively, more of the response range is dedicated to common stimuli, at the expense of less frequent stimuli (13).Similarly, t...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The response of receptors to individual ligands has been measured experimentally for flies (33) and humans (34). We use these published data to estimate the statistics of realistic sensitivity matrices as described in Supporting Information.…”

Section: Optimal Receptormentioning

confidence: 99%

Receptor arrays optimized for natural odor statistics

Zwicker

Murugan

Brenner

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Based on the seven most prevalent odor descriptors, he saw odor as defined by a set of rigid shapes. While steric effects are clearly relevant, strict shape matching is no longer held onto as individual receptors are known to accommodate multiple odourants [26][27][28].…”

Section: Docking Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular recognition in olfaction

Horsfield

Haase

Turin

2017

Advances in Physics: X

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The mechanism by which the chemical identity of odourants is established by olfactory receptors is a matter of intense debate. Here we present an overview of recent ideas and data with a view to summarising what is known, and what has yet to be determined. We outline the competing theories, and summarise experimental results employing isotopes obtained for mammals, insects, and individual receptors that enable us to judge the relative correctness of the theories. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…Citrus peel and brewer's yeast both produce linalool (Carrau et al 2005;Chisholm et al 2003), which the flies perceive via several odorant receptors (Ors), including DmelOr69a (Lebreton et al 2017;Münch and Galizia 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Scent of the Fly

et al. 2018

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Abstract(Z)-4-undecenal (Z4-11Al) is the volatile pheromone produced by females of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster. Female flies emit Z4-11Al for species-specific communication and mate-finding. A sensory panel finds that synthetic Z4-11Al has a characteristic flavour, which can be perceived even at the small amounts produced by a single female fly. Since only females produce Z4-11Al, and not males, we can reliably distinguish between single D. melanogaster males and females, according to their scent. Females release Z4-11Al at 2.4 ng/h and we readily sense 1 ng synthetic Z4-11Al in a glass of wine (0.03 nmol/L), while a tenfold concentration is perceived as a loud off-flavour. This corroborates the observation that a glass of wine is spoilt by a single D. melanogaster fly falling into it, which we here show is caused by Z4-11Al. The biological role of Z4-11Al or structurally related aldehydes in humans and the basis for this semiochemical convergence remains yet unclear.

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DoOR 2.0 - Comprehensive Mapping of Drosophila melanogaster Odorant Responses

Cited by 205 publications

References 54 publications

Receptor arrays optimized for natural odor statistics

Receptor arrays optimized for natural odor statistics

Molecular recognition in olfaction

The Scent of the Fly

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