The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster can distinguish a large repertoire of odors in the environment. Their response may be to move toward food or away from danger. Moreover, particular odors play an important role in their mating behavior. The olfactory organs of a fruit fly are the antennae and an elongated bulge on the head called the maxillary pulp. Because of the ease with which fruit fly genes can be manipulated, identifying and studying their olfactory receptors likely would contribute significantly to our understanding of neural pathways of odor recognition more generally. How could you identify candidate fruit fly genes that encode components of olfactory receptors?
