Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Comparative physiology and morphology of the moth olfactory pathwayThe structure and functional similarity of insect antennal lobes to vertebrate olfactory bulbs provides an attractive model to observe chemosensory processing within a relatively simpler system. Insect behaviour is strongly linked to neurophysiology, such that reliable relationships may be inferred from a combined behavioral - neurophysiological approach. My research program is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which odorants are encoded within the brain. Moreover, knowledge of host odor processing and insect behavior from my lab will be used to investigate olfactory preference by insects, and to address long-standing ecological theories on host choice, chemical legacy, and mechanisms of odor memory. As well, the olfactory system provides a model for a simple neural network which is easily accessed and manipulated to investigate signal integration, synergy and inhibition of neural signals. The objectives of this project are to determine how different mixtures of odorants are coded within the brain of a model moth species and determine the degree of variation in physiology, coding, and morphology between divergent moth species. My students and I will use a combination of electrode-recording and anatomical stains of the moth antennal lobes to examine how host-plant odours and pheromones are encoded by the insect brain. Phylogeny (evolutionary lineage) and habitat (plant preference) are expected to influence representation of odours within the brain of different species. All insects selected for investigation are economically important pest species in agriculture and forestry, and are considered some of the most damaging forest pest in the world, defoliating millions of hectares of forest every year. Advances in the understanding of host location in all of these species will be extremely beneficial to future pest management, in Canada and globally.