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Olfaction

Olfaction

The sense of smell is achieved through the activities of the olfactory system. It starts when an airborne odorant enters the nasal cavity and reaches olfactory epithelium (OE). The OE is protected by a thin layer of mucus, which also serves the purpose of dissolving more complex compounds into simpler chemical odorants. The size of the OE and the density of sensory neurons varies among species; in humans, the OE is only about 9-10 cm2.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 19, 2025

Electrophysiological Recording From Drosophila Labellar Taste Sensilla

Electrophysiological Recording From Drosophila Labellar Taste Sensilla

Published on: February 26, 2014

Recording from Fly Olfactory Sensilla.

Richard Benton¹, Anupama Dahanukar²

¹Center for Integrative Genomics, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland Richard.Benton@unil.ch anupama.dahanukar@ucr.edu.

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

|November 29, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study details a method for recording odor-evoked neural activity in Drosophila olfactory sensilla. This technique helps characterize olfactory receptor function and signal transduction in the insect olfactory system.

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Last Updated: Aug 19, 2025

Electrophysiological Recording From Drosophila Labellar Taste Sensilla

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Published on: February 26, 2014

Electrophysiological Recording from Drosophila Trichoid Sensilla in Response to Odorants of Low Volatility

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Single Sensillum Recordings in the Insects Drosophila melanogaster and Anopheles gambiae

Single Sensillum Recordings in the Insects Drosophila melanogaster and Anopheles gambiae

Published on: February 17, 2010

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory Biology
Insect Physiology

Background:

Olfactory systems process diverse volatile stimuli, with peripheral olfactory sensory neurons expressing specific olfactory receptors crucial for coding.
The fruit fly, Drosophila, serves as a model organism due to its simple yet vertebrate-analogous peripheral olfactory system.
Olfactory sensory neurons in Drosophila are molecularly characterized and physiologically accessible on external sensory organs.

Purpose of the Study:

To describe a protocol for recording odor-evoked neural activity from Drosophila olfactory sensilla.
To enable characterization of ligand-recognition properties of olfactory sensory neurons.
To investigate the role of olfactory receptors in signal transduction.

Main Methods:

Detailed protocol for sample preparation of Drosophila olfactory sensilla.
Instructions for setting up an electrophysiology rig for neural recordings.
Guidance on assembling an odor stimulus-delivery device and data analysis.

Main Results:

The described methodology allows for physiological analysis of odor-evoked activity.
Enables characterization of ligand-response profiles of olfactory sensory neurons.
Facilitates understanding of olfactory receptor function and signal transduction pathways.

Conclusions:

This protocol provides a robust method for studying olfactory coding in Drosophila.
It is applicable to characterizing olfactory sensory neuron responses and receptor function.
The technique contributes to understanding neural representation of olfactory cues.