Supervisors :
Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly, Research Director ; Sébastien Fiorucci, Associate Professor ; Arthur Comte, PhD Student
Context and objectives :
The interactions between plants and insects are primarily guided by chemical communication, particularly olfactory communication when an insect seeks to locate and identify its host. The key actors involved in recognizing volatile signals are olfactory receptors (OR). With the development of high-throughput sequencing, the repertoires of ORs have been identified in many insects. However, the contribution of ORs to host preferences and feeding habits remains poorly studied. The main reason is the difficulty of experimentally identifying the odor molecules that activate these ORs.
Based on the ORs identified in three sister species of moths, two polyphagous and one monophagous, this project aims to overcome this barrier by establishing a computational and functional screening workflow. The initial protein modeling followed by virtual screenings has already helped select ORs that potentially play a major role in defining the chemical space recognized by these three species and predicting their ligands. The goal of the internship will be to experimentally validate these predictions. The activity of potential ligands will be tested on the corresponding ORs, which will be expressed heterologously in Drosophila neurons, using electrophysiology (single-sensillum recordings).
From an applied perspective in pest biocontrol, this project will accelerate the discovery, through machine learning coupled with experimentation, of agonists/antagonists/blockers of ORs capable of disrupting the behavior of pests.
Planned techniques :
Electrophysiology, virtual screening, Drosophila genetics, Drosophila breeding.
Profile sought :
We are looking for a student in the final year of their master’s program (university track or engineering cycle). The recruited intern should demonstrate dynamism and a high level of scientific rigor. Knowledge in ecology and electrophysiology would be a plus, as well as curiosity and a desire to explore the world of research.
Articles for initial readings :
Pacalon et al. (2023). Elucidating the structural basis for ligand binding and translocation in conserved insect odorant receptor co-receptors. bioRxiv, 2023-05.
de Fouchier et al. (2017). Functional evolution of Lepidoptera olfactory receptors revealed by deorphanization of a moth repertoire. Nature communications, 8, 15709.
Bastin-Héline et al. (2019). A novel lineage of candidate pheromone receptors for sex communication in moths. eLife, 8, e49826.
Caballero-Vidal et al. (2021). Reverse chemical ecology in a moth: machine learning on odorant receptors identifies new behaviorally active agonists. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 78, 6593–6603.
Del Mármol et al. (2021). The structural basis of odorant recognition in insect olfactory receptors. Nature, 597, 126-131.
Application requirements:
Send CV and cover letter to Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly and Arthur Comte by email (emmanuelle.joly@inrae.fr, arthur.comte@inrae.fr )
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