MOLECULAR BASIS OF OLFACTORY DISCRIMINATION

哺乳动物的嗅觉系统能够区分大量的 各种不同的气味。 气味感知的初始事件发生在 在纤毛嗅觉感觉神经元中， 鼻腔中的嗅觉上皮。 气味分子（气味剂） 与这些神经元纤毛上的气味受体结合， 事件的级联，导致信号传输到 嗅球 据认为，嗅觉的不同子集 神经元识别不同的气味， 由嗅球中的每一个子集形成的气味可以被解读为“气味 代码“。 事实上，组织原理和分子机制 是未知的。 理解嗅觉编码缺少的关键是气味 受体的 我们已经在大鼠中鉴定出一个多基因家族， 气味受体 我们现在将使用这个多基因家族来执行 这些研究将提供对嗅觉信息编码的深入了解。 我们 将：1）分析推定的气味剂的功能特性 通过在异源细胞类型中表达单个受体 并研究受体细胞对不同的 气味剂。2)定义气味编码的组织原则 通过确定有多少种不同的气味受体亚型 通过单个嗅觉神经元， 不同的气味受体亚型的表达模式， 嗅上皮，并分析突触形成的模式， 嗅球被表达不同受体亚型的神经元所控制。 3)调查这些组织的发展收购 特征，以确定它们被 确立了习

The mammalian olfactory system is able to discriminate a vast number and variety of different odors. The initial events in odor perception occur in ciliated olfactory sensory neurons that reside in a specialized olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity. Odorous molecules (odorants) bind to odorant receptors on the cilia of these neurons and induce a cascade of events that leads to the transmission of signals to the olfactory bulb. It is thought that different subsets of olfactory neurons recognize different odorants and that the pattern of synapses formed by each subset in the olfactory bulb might be read as an 'odor code'. In fact, the organizational principles and molecular mechanisms that underlie the coding peripheral olfactory information are unknown. The missing key to understanding olfactory coding has been the odorant receptor. We have identified a multigene family in the rat that is likely to encode odorant receptors. We will now use this multigene family to perform studies that will provide insight into olfactory information coding. We will: 1) Analyze the functional properties of the putative odorant receptors by expressing individual receptors in heterologous cell types and studying the ability of the recipient cells to respond to different odorants. 2) Define the organizational principles underlying odor coding by determining how many different odorant receptor subtypes are expressed by individual olfactory neurons, characterizing the topographical patterns of expression of different odorant receptor subtypes in the olfactory epithelium, and analyzing the patterns of synapses formed in the olfactory bulb by neurons that express different receptor subtypes. 3) Investigate the developmental acquisition of these organizational features in order to determine the mechanisms by which they are established.