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Outline: What makes a molecule taste "bitter"?.
Many plants product bitter compounds which deter herbivores from feeding upon
them. Some of these compounds are toxic, others
have simply a bad taste. These molecules are of particular interest because they
could be used for example to protect our crops from pest insects. Insects use their taste sensilla to evaluate the food quality or to assess if
a substrate is acceptable to lay their eggs. Some of these neurons detect
potentially toxic molecules. How do they "know" that these molecules are bad?
We approach this question at two levels, first by studying how taste cells
encode taste stimuli and how their messages are integrated in the brain, second,
by using behavioral and chemical ecology approaches to understand the role of
bitter sensing in insects and the efficiency of bitter stimuli for protecting
plants.
- Associative learning in larval Lepidoptera is
currently studied by Ali Salloum (PhD student 2007-2010) and Violaine
Colson, on Spodoptera littoralis.
- Bitter receptors in Drosophila - physiology of taste sensilla detecting
bitter compounds, using Drosophila as a model insect with M.J. Sellier
(PhD
student 2007-2010), Marie-Ange Chabaud (Postdoc 2009-2010), Alexandra Guigue
(PhD 2009-2012) and Philippe Lucas.
Click here for more infos.
- Detection of aversive signals from plants - olfaction in larvae
of Spodoptera littoralis with Kacem Rharrabe (postdoc 2009-2010),
Erwan (PhD 2009-2012), Philippe Lucas and Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly
- 2007-2009 PRAD bilateral Morocco-French collaboration with Prof. Sayah Fouad, University of Tangier
- 2007-2008 Bilateral France-Berkeley Fund with Dr Kristin Scott, UC Berkeley
- 2008-2010 ANR blanc INSAVEL, supervised by Prof. Martin Giurfa
- 2009-2001 ANR "6ème extinction", supervised by Prof.
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last edited:
November 06, 2009
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