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Signaling by olfactory receptor neurons near threshold.

ABSTRACT: An important contributing factor for the high sensitivity of sensory systems is the exquisite sensitivity of the sensory receptor cells. We report here the signaling threshold of the olfactory receptor neuron (ORN). We first obtained a best estimate of the size of the physiological electrical response successfully triggered by a single odorant-binding event on a frog ORN, which was ∼0.034 pA and had an associated transduction domain spanning only a tiny fraction of the length of an ORN cilium. We also estimated the receptor-current threshold for an ORN to fire action potentials in response to an odorant pulse, which was ∼1.2 pA. Thus, it takes about 35 odorant-binding events successfully triggering transduction during a brief odorant pulse in order for an ORN to signal to the brain.

SUBMITTER: Bhandawat V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2972989 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Signaling by olfactory receptor neurons near threshold.

Bhandawat Vikas V Reisert Johannes J Yau King-Wai KW

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20101007 43

An important contributing factor for the high sensitivity of sensory systems is the exquisite sensitivity of the sensory receptor cells. We report here the signaling threshold of the olfactory receptor neuron (ORN). We first obtained a best estimate of the size of the physiological electrical response successfully triggered by a single odorant-binding event on a frog ORN, which was ∼0.034 pA and had an associated transduction domain spanning only a tiny fraction of the length of an ORN cilium. W ...[more]

PMID: 20930117

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Project description:Olfactory sensory neurons choose to express a single odorant receptor (OR) from a large gene repertoire and extend axons to reproducible, OR-specific locations within the olfactory bulb. This developmental process produces a topographically organized map of odorant experience in the brain. The axon guidance mechanisms that generate this pattern of connectivity, as well as those that coordinate OR choice and axonal guidance receptor expression, are incompletely understood. We applied the powerful approach of single-cell RNA-seq on newly born olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) in young zebrafish larvae to address these issues. Expression profiles were generated for 56 individual Olfactory Marker Protein (OMP) positive sensory neurons by single-cell (SC) RNA-seq. We show that just as in mouse OSNs, mature zebrafish OSNs typically express a single predominant OR transcript. Our previous work suggests that OSN targeting is related to the OR clade from which a sensory neuron chooses to express its odorant receptor. We categorized each of the mature cells based on the clade of their predominantly expressed OR. Transcripts expressed at higher levels in each of three clade-related categories were identified using Penalized Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA). A genome-wide approach was used to identify membrane-associated proteins that are most likely to have guidance-related activity. We found that OSNs that choose to express an OR from a particular clade also express specific subsets of potential axon guidance genes and transcription factors. We validated our identification of candidate axon guidance genes for one clade of OSNs using bulk RNA-seq from a subset of transgene-labeled neurons that project to a single protoglomerulus. The differential expression patterns of selected candidate guidance genes were confirmed using fluorescent in situ hybridization. Most importantly, we observed axonal mistargeting in knockouts of three candidate axonal guidance genes identified in this analysis: nrp1a, nrp1b, and robo2. In each case, targeting errors were detected in the subset of axons that normally express these transcripts at high levels, and not in the axons that express them at low levels. Our findings demonstrate that specific, functional, axonal guidance related genes are expressed in subsets of OSNs that that can be categorized by their patterns of OR expression.

Dataset Information

Signaling by olfactory receptor neurons near threshold.

Publications

Signaling by olfactory receptor neurons near threshold.

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