Pelin Cayirlioglu Volkan, Assistant Professor
Education:
Postdoctoral Research, University of California - Los Angeles, 2009
PhD, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 2003
Email Address: pc72@duke.edu
Specialties:
Developmental Biology
Genetics
Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Categories: Genetic Regulation of Olfactory Circuit Assembly in Drosophila
Current projects: Development and evolution of CO2 sensory circuitry in Drosophila, Regulation of Odorant receptor choice, Class specific wiring of Odorant Receptor Neurons
Research Description: Signals for potential food sources, mates, and life-threatening situations in nature, often are presented as fluctuations in the content and concentration of chemicals in the environment. Thus, all organisms have evolved means of sampling their chemical environment to help them navigate through it. In multi-cellular organisms, the behavioral response to a specific chemical in the environment, is determined by the underlying chemosensory circuitry, which is dependent on: 1) detection of the signal through sensory receptors expressed in the neurons and the pattern of this receptor expression in the organism, and 2) the connectivity pattern of the neurons that detect the signal to specific regions in the brain. To simplifying the strenuous task of making sense of a continuously changing chemical environment, the brain coordinates sensory and wiring identities of individual classes of sensory neurons as the sensory circuits are being assembled during development. This strategy ensures that the neurons that detect the same signal make connections with the same cells or within similar regions in the brain. In our lab, we use the olfactory circuitry of genetically tractable Drosophila to dissect out molecular mechanisms regulating this coordination. Here, 1200 odorant receptor neurons (ORNs), housed in clusters of 1-4 cells within olfactory sensilla on the antenna and the maxillary palps, are specified to generate 50 different ORN classes. Each ORN expresses roughly one out of approximately 60 odorant receptor (ORs) genes encoded in the Drosophila genome. ORNs expressing the same OR project to a stereotyped position within the antennal lobe called a “glomerulus” to form class-specific synapses with their target neurons. We are currently working on molecular networks governing OR expression pattern and wiring specificity in ORNs, using genetic, molecular and cellular approaches. We would ultimately like to understand how these programs are coordinated during the specification of individual classes ORNs and how they are reorganized into new circuits during evolution to accommodate species-specific behavioral differences to similar chemicals.
Recent Publications (search)
- Cayirlioglu, P.*, Kadow, I.*, Zhan, X., Okamura, K., Suh, G.S.B., Gunning, D., Lai, E., and Zipursky, S.L., Hybrid Neurons In a microRNA Mutant Are Putative Evolutionary Intermediates In Insect CO2 Sensory Systems., Science, vol. 319 no. 5867 (2008), pp. 1256-60 .
- Jones, W.D., Cayirlioglu, P., Kadow, I.G., and Vosshall, L.B., Two chemosensory Receptors together mediate carbon dioxide detection in Drosophila., Nature, vol. 445 (2007), pp. 86-90 .
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