Identification of candidate Drosophila olfactory receptors from genomic DNA sequence

We have taken advantage of the availability of a large amount of Drosophila genomic DNA sequence in the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project database (s imilar to 1/5 of the genome) to identify a family of novel seven transmembr ane domain encoding genes that are putative Drosophila olfactory receptors. Members of the family are expressed in distinct subsets of olfactory neuro ns, and certain family members are restricted to distinct portions of the o lfactory system. This pattern of expression has interesting similarities to and differences from the expression patterns observed for olfactory recept ors in vertebrates. The Drosophila olfactory system is simpler than mammali an systems, yet it is complex enough to present a fascinating system in whi ch to study neural information processing. Moreover, the powerful genetic m anipulations available in Drosophila, when combined with electrophysiologic al and behavioral analyses, make this an attractive model system in which t o study olfactory discrimination. (C) 1999 Academic Press.