Achieving diverse and monoallelic olfactory receptor selection through dual-objective optimization design.

ABSTRACT: Multiple-objective optimization is common in biological systems. In the mammalian olfactory system, each sensory neuron stochastically expresses only one out of up to thousands of olfactory receptor (OR) gene alleles; at the organism level, the types of expressed ORs need to be maximized. Existing models focus only on monoallele activation, and cannot explain recent observations in mutants, especially the reduced global diversity of expressed ORs in G9a/GLP knockouts. In this work we integrated existing information on OR expression, and constructed a comprehensive model that has all its components based on physical interactions. Analyzing the model reveals an evolutionarily optimized three-layer regulation mechanism, which includes zonal segregation, epigenetic barrier crossing coupled to

SUBMITTER: Tian XJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4889386 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature