# Detecting the motion of odors: Olfactory direction sensing in Drosophila

> **NIH NIH K99** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $34,324

## Abstract

Project Summary
This project will investigate the neural computations underlying multisensory integration in the context of olfactory
navigation. Olfactory navigation drives animal behaviors ranging from those critical for mankind’s survival, such
as crop pollination, to those that are fantastically destructive, such as the location of human hosts by vectors of
disease. Olfactory navigation is also an ideal paradigm for understanding how neural systems convert complex
sensory stimuli into sequences of actions comprising a goal-directed task. To navigate odor plumes, animals
must integrate potentially conflicting information streams from multiple sensory inputs, such as mechanosensory
information from wind motion, as well as the timing and location of odor signals. I will focus on an information
stream not yet investigated in olfaction: the direction of motion of traveling odor filaments. The direction of odor
motion may contain information about the location of the odor source, which can reinforce information from local
wind cues. This project will combine sophisticated behavioral paradigms, genetic silencing, calcium imaging, and
theoretical modeling in a model system, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, to characterize how odor motion
is detected and used in natural plume navigation. Targeted neural manipulations are enabled by the wealth of
genetic tools available in Drosophila system – in particular the recent identification of neuron types in (and
development of genetic drivers for) higher-order olfactory processing centers. In the mentored (K99) portion of
this grant, I will use behavioral recordings and optogenetic stimulation to characterize odor direction sensing in
fruit flies, and how it integrates with wind sensing. In the latter portion of the K99, carrying over into the initial
phase of the R00, I will use targeted genetic manipulations and calcium imaging to identify the neurons and brain
regions involved in odor direction sensing, and to characterize how odor direction is encoded in the activity
patterns of 2nd- and 3rd-order olfactory circuit neurons. This portion of the project is uniquely possible in the
Drosophila system, whose well-mapped connectome allows causal perturbations of the information flow through
the olfactory circuit hierarchy. In the latter portion of the R00, I will combine theoretical models with behavioral
recordings to quantify how information from odor direction sensing can be optimally exploited in navigating
naturalistic odor plumes. The proposal offers training in recording neural activity, as well as mentorship in the
design of navigation assays and higher-order olfactory processing. Training will be provided by a strong
mentorship and advising committee, consisting of co-mentors Thierry Emonet and Damon Clark, who offer
complementary expertise in Drosophila olfactory navigation and in direction sensing in the Drosophila visual
pathway, as well as advisors Justus Verhagen (virtual reality assay for o...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10370404
- **Project number:** 5K99DC019397-02
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Nirag Kadakia
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $34,324
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2022-08-01

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10370404

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10370404, Detecting the motion of odors: Olfactory direction sensing in Drosophila (5K99DC019397-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10370404. Licensed CC0.

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