Mechanisms of Development and Evolution of the Insect Olfactory System

To increase detection of a complex chemical environment, vertebrates and insects express an extraordinary number of distinct olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) classes, each functionally specialized to detect a set of odorants. This is achieved as the olfactory system develops and each of these ORN classes makes developmental decisions defining the olfactory receptor genes they will express and their class-specific connections in the brain. In addition to this high level of ORN diversity, olfactory systems are also very dynamic evolutionarily, with both the number and functionality of olfactory receptor genes as well as the requirement for certain ORN circuits being under ecological constraints. In this review, we will discuss molecular and developmental strategies underlying ORN diversity and evolutionary plasticity as well as present the insect olfactory system as a model for evo-devo research in light of recent findings. *Corresponding author: Pelin Cayirlioglu Volkan, Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA, Tel: 9196841150; E-mail: [email protected] Received December 04, 2013; Accepted December 29, 2013; Published December 31, 2013 Citation: Pan JW, Volkan PC (2013) Mechanisms of Development and Evolution of the Insect Olfactory System. Cell Dev Biol 2: 130. doi:10.4172/2168-9296.1000130 Copyright: © 2013 Pan JW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.