Odorant receptor complexes in olfactory cilia and axons

本研究的目的是探讨嗅觉神经元纤毛区和轴突区气味受体蛋白的分子特征。特别感兴趣的是集中在蛋白质，应该是与OR，纤毛和轴突的膜中形成多聚体复合物。探索和鉴定这种复合物的分子元件应该提供对决定差异靶向和转移机制到特定亚室的分子特征的了解。此外，每个隔室中的受体蛋白被认为与不同的信号元件紧密相连。由于受体激活后的细胞反应对于每个隔室是完全不同的，因此最有可能的是在每个位置处涉及特异性信号级联。相关信号元件的识别将为这些未探索的主题提供深入了解。此外，这将是特别感兴趣的，以确定这些建议的蛋白质复合物可能被锚定到细胞骨架上，这似乎是特别相关的轴突位置，在那里的导航过程中生长的轴突以及轴突间的联系可能会受到影响，通过OR-介导的信号传导过程。

The proposed research project is aimed to explore the molecular features of odorant receptor (OR) proteins segregated in the ciliary versus the axonal compartments of olfactory sensory neurons. Particular interest is focused on the proteins that are supposed to be associated with the OR, forming multimeric complexes in membranes of the cilia and axons. Exploring and identifying the molecular elements of such complexes are supposed to provide insight in molecular features determining the differential targeting and transfer mechanisms into the specific subcompartments. Furthermore, the receptor proteins in each compartment are supposed to be closely linked to distinct signalling elements. Since the proposed cellular response upon receptor activation is quite different for each compartment, it is most likely that at each location specific signalling cascades are involved. Identification of associated signalling elements would provide insight into these unexplored topics. Moreover, it will be of special interest to determine how these proposed protein complexes may be anchored onto the cytoskeleton; this appears to be of particular relevance in the axonal location, where the navigation processes of outgrowing axons as well as the interaxonal linkages may be affected via OR-mediated signalling processes.