A novel molecular mechanism underlying the sense of oily odorants by olfaction

关于动物感受油的机制，味觉中的油传感器已有一些报道，但嗅觉对油的感知仍有待于研究。在自然界中，动物通过嗅觉感知油的气味可能是必要的，以便有效地消耗油。在本研究中，我们专注于嗅觉感觉神经元（OSNs）和传感器分子，响应于不饱和长链脂肪酸，阐明一种新的分子机制嗅觉感知油。值得注意的是，我们不仅通过行为实验分析了小鼠，还通过钙成像检查了OSN中对油性气味的反应，以澄清几种油和不饱和长链脂肪酸对气味反应的差异。此外，我们寻找了我们最近发现的在油传感器OSNs中特异性表达的基因，以通过用慢病毒异位表达OSNs中的候选分子来阐明油传感器的功能。

About mechanisms that animals feel oil, there are some reports for oil sensors in gustation; however, the perception of oil by olfaction remains to be uncovered. It is possible that the perception of the oily smell by olfaction is necessary so that animals consume oil effectively in the natural world.In this study, we focused on olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and sensor molecules that respond to unsaturated long-chain fatty acids to elucidate a novel molecular mechanism of oil sensing by olfaction. Notably, we not only analyzed mice by behavior experiments, but also examined responses to oily odorants in OSNs by the calcium imaging to clarify the difference in responsiveness to odorants among several kinds of oils and unsaturated long-chain fatty acids. In addition, we searched for the genes expressing specifically in the oil sensor OSNs, which we have recently found, to clarify the function of oil sensors by ectopic expression of candidate molecules in OSNs with the lentivirus.