Computational exploration of molecular receptive fields in the olfactory bulb reveals a glomerulus-centric chemical map.

ABSTRACT: Progress in olfactory research is currently hampered by incomplete knowledge about chemical receptive ranges of primary receptors. Moreover, the chemical logic underlying the arrangement of computational units in the olfactory bulb has still not been resolved. We undertook a large-scale approach at characterising molecular receptive ranges (MRRs) of glomeruli in the dorsal olfactory bulb (dOB) innervated by the MOR18-2 olfactory receptor, also known as Olfr78, with human ortholog OR51E2. Guided by an iterative approach that combined biological screening and machine learning, we selected 214 odorants to characterise the response of MOR18-2 and its neighbouring glomeruli. We found that a combination of conventional physico-chemical and vibrational molecular descriptors performed best in pred

SUBMITTER: Soelter J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6952415 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature