Odor Response Properties of Rat Olfactory Receptor Neurons

Molecular biology studies of olfaction have identified a multigene family of molecular receptors that are likely to be involved in odor transduction mechanisms. However, because previous functional data on peripheral coding were mainly collected from inferior vertebrates, it has been difficult to do...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1999-06, Vol.284 (5423), p.2171-2174
Main Authors: Duchamp-Viret, P., Chaput, M. A., Duchamp, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetophenones
Action Potentials
Animals
Anisoles
Behavioral psychophysiology
Benzaldehydes
Biological and medical sciences
Brain
Camphor
Coding
Cyclohexenes
Electrophysiology
Feedback (Response)
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Life Sciences
Limonene
Molecular biology
Molecular Structure
Molecules
Neurons
Neurons and Cognition
Neuroscience
Odorants
Odors
Olfactometry
Olfactory receptor neurons
Olfactory Receptor Neurons - physiology
Olfactory receptors
Pentanols
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Receptors
Receptors, Odorant - genetics
Receptors, Odorant - physiology
Rodents
Stimuli
Terpenes
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Summary:Molecular biology studies of olfaction have identified a multigene family of molecular receptors that are likely to be involved in odor transduction mechanisms. However, because previous functional data on peripheral coding were mainly collected from inferior vertebrates, it has been difficult to document the degree of specificity of odor interaction mechanisms. As a matter of fact, studies of the functional expression of olfactory receptors have not demonstrated the low or high specificity of olfactory receptors. In this study, the selectivity of olfactory receptor neurons was investigated in the rat at the cellular level under physiological conditions by unitary extracellular recordings. Individual olfactory receptor neurons were broadly responsive to qualitatively distinct odor compounds. We conclude that peripheral coding is based on activated arrays of olfactory receptor cells with overlapping tuning profiles.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.284.5423.2171