SEX BASED DIFFERENCES IN OLFACTORY SENSITIVITY

嗅觉敏感度的性别差异

• 批准号: 6112016
• 负责人: William Craig Michel
• 金额: $ 13.49万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-06-01 至 2000-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6112016
• 关键词: anatomy; gender difference; immunocytochemistry; morphology; odors; olfactions; olfactory stimulus; pheromone; physiology; reproduction; sensory receptors; voltage /patch clamp; zebrafish

Psychophisical studies frequently identify sex-based differences in sensory capability. In most cases the mechanistic basis of these differences is poorly understood. This is particularly evident when one considers human olfactory capability. Women are reportedly more sensitive to odors and and to have better odor identification abilities than men but the physiological basis is unknown. The lack of an appropriate animal model has hampered physiological and anatomical investigations of the underlying mechanisms. While characterizing the olfactory capabilities of zebrafish we discovered that the response of females to all general feeding and social odorants tested was larger thatn the corresponding male response. Understanding the mechanistic basis of these sex-based differences in general olfactor sensitivity (as opposed to pheromone sensitivity) is the focus of current application. Three basic questions direct our investigation. 1) Do the significant sex-based differencesin sensitivity observed in response to a few odorants generalize to most odorants including putative pheromones? 2) What influence does reproductive status play in determining olfactory sensitivity? 3) Can physiological and/or anatomical differences in the olfactory organs of the sexes account for the differences in sensitivity? Contemporary electrophysiological and Ca 2+ imaging techniques will be used to determine if basic biophysical properties of individual olfactory receptor neurons are influenced by sex. An activity dependent immunostaining procedure and standard morphometric techniques will be used to estimate the density of competent odor-sensitive ORNs. The zebrafish is oneof a very few vertegrate models where a complete molecular picture of embryonic development including development of the olfactory system is likely to emerge. Consequently, experimenets intended to address fundamental questions about sex-based differences in olfactory processing will also provide an essential physiological context to aid in interpretationof developmental and molecular genetic data that are being obtained in this lab and others.

心理学研究经常确定基于性别的差异 感官能力。 在大多数情况下，这些机械基础 差异知之甚少。 当这是特别明显的 人们认为人类的嗅觉能力。 据报道，妇女更多 对气味敏感并具有更好的气味识别能力 比男人，但生理基础尚不清楚。 缺乏 适当的动物模型阻碍了生理和解剖学 对基本机制的调查。同时表征 斑马鱼的嗅觉能力我们发现 所有经过一般喂养和测试的社会气味的女性都更大 相应的男性反应。 了解 这些基于性别的差异的机械基础 灵敏度（与信息素敏感性相反）是 当前申请。 三个基本问题指导我们的调查。 1）在观察到在 对几种气味的反应概括了大多数气味剂 推定的信息素？ 2）生殖状态有什么影响 扮演确定嗅觉敏感性？ 3）可以生理和/或 性别的嗅觉器官的解剖学差异 灵敏度的差异？ 当代电生理学和 Ca 2+成像技术将用于确定是否基本 单个嗅觉受体神经元的生物物理特性是 受性影响。 活动依赖于免疫染色程序 标准形态计量技术将用于估计 有能力的气味敏感ORN的密度。 斑马鱼是一个 很少有椎体模型在其中完整的分子图片 胚胎开发包括嗅觉系统的发展 可能会出现。 因此，实验旨在解决 关于基于性别的嗅觉差异的基本问题 处理还将提供一个重要的生理环境来帮助 在解释发育和分子遗传数据中 在这个实验室和其他实验室获得。