Modeling olfactory organ development

Modularity refers to a model of connectivity in which elements are grouped into strongly connected sub-assemblies, called modules or building blocks. This is an important property in biology, as it allows a system to ‘maintain its current state’ while allowing for further evolution. The properties attributed to modules are discrete organization defined by the expression of specific genes and occupation of specific physical territories. In vertebrates, the functional and architectural organization of the olfactory system is conserved throughout evolution. The olfactory organ is composed of different types of olfactory sensory neurons, the OSNs, each capable of detecting specific odorous molecules, organized with a specific shape and position, and each expressing a set of specific genes. However, the progenitor cell population has not yet been characterized. Our aim is to break down the formation of the olfactory sensory organ into modules: a genetic module and a morphometric and behavioral module. We are therefore developing multidisciplinary approaches that use a combination of qualitative and quantitative imaging on the zebrafish embryo, data science, machine learning and image analysis and mathematical models to identify the two modules and assemble them in order to generate a single-cell transcriptomic atlas, dynamically linked to cellular behaviors and capable of predicting the architecture of a complex biological system: in this case, the olfactory sensory organ.