Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: We utilized swept confocally aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscopy to measure odor-driven activity simultaneously in many (>10,000) olfactory sensory neurons distributed over large areas of intact mouse olfactory epithelium. This approach allowed us to investigate the responses to mixtures or blends of odors and their components, a more realistic stimulus than monomolecular odors. In up to 38% of responding cells, responses to a mixture of odors were different - absent, smaller or larger - than what would be expected from the sum of the individual components. Further investigation revealed instances of both antagonism and allosteric enhancement in the primary olfactory sensory neurons. All 10 of the odor compounds tested were found to act as both agonists and antagonists at different receptors. We present a hypothetical scheme for how modulation at the peripheral receptors increases the capability of the olfactory system to recognize patterns of complex odor mixtures. The widespread modulation of primary sensory receptors argues against a simple combinatorial code and should motivate a search for alternative coding strategies.
Source: Science
Language: English
Subfield: Sensory Systems
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, Simons Foundation, Kavli Foundation, Firmenich, Flatiron Health, National Institutes of Health, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
Awards: G2111327958, Flexible Tools for Pre-Clinical Studies to Answer Key Questions UnderlyingHeavy-Ion Radiotherapy, G3670116301, G5915832009, Gottesman Lab: New Space Activation, G6671297155, The perception of odor blends and mixtures: Modulation, Inhibition and Enhancement of Olfactory Receptors alters perception of complex blends, SCAPE microscopy for high-speed in-vivo volumetric microscopy in behaving organisms, SCAPE microscopy for high-speed 3D imaging of cellular function in behaving animals: Continued innovation, optimization, and dissemination, CAREER: Interventional Microscopy for In-vivo Investigations of Brain Function
OpenAlex ID: W3015624413