Nathan, Sara et al. (2015) International Worm Meeting "Identifying and characterizing odor receptors in C. elegans."

Cox-Harris, Alesha, Brueggemann, Chantal, Mosqueda, Berenice, Young, Jared, Newman, Elizabeth, Nathan, Sara, Morton, Riva, Dalton, Cassidy, L'Etoile, Noelle, Apostol, Sherrlyne

[International Worm Meeting, 2015]

Although scientists have been studying olfaction in C. elegans for decades, olfactory receptor proteins remain largely uncharacterized. To address this knowledge gap, we are pursuing localization of candidate odor receptor proteins, and studying odor responses in genetically altered worms. We are producing lines with GFP-tagged putative odor receptors using constructs obtain from the Transgeneome project, and looking for proteins that localize to sensory cilia. We are testing chemotaxis to a variety of odors of worms in which expression of putative odor receptors have been reduced using RNA interference. We are also generating knockout worms for putative odor receptors using the CRISPR technique, to be tested in chemotaxis assays. .