Visualizing the taste sensory map in mice

Abstract

The sense of taste provides crucial information about the nature and palatability of food sources. One of the most important questions in sensory and gustatory neurobiology is to understand how the taste system encodes taste quality both peripherally and centrally. Recent molecular and genetic studies have significantly advanced our understanding of peripheral events in taste reception and discrimination. However, in order to define the neural principles that govern taste, it is necessary to identify the neuronal pathways that relay and process peripheral sensory information into the relevant representations in the brain. In this proposal, I propose to utilize various neuro-anatomical tracing methods to define the connectivity pattern between identified taste receptor cells on the tongue and neurons in the geniculate and petrosal ganglia. This fellowship will provide me the unique opportunity to change of my focus from cellular physiology to molecular genetic approach and system neurobiology, which I have had no opportunity to learn in China. This fellowship experience will undoubtedly provide me with new ideas, broaden my expertise, and help me to achieve my scientific goal independently. Furthermore, it will provide me the chance to join one of the leading labs studying the molecular genetics of taste perception in the world, which I believe will surely help me to head my own research laboratory in the field of rodent sensory neuroethology in future.