TY - JOUR
T1 - Single olfactory receptors set odor detection thresholds
AU - Dewan, Adam
AU - Cichy, Annika
AU - Zhang, Jingji
AU - Miguel, Kayla
AU - Feinstein, Paul
AU - Rinberg, Dmitry
AU - Bozza, Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from the NIH/NIDCD and DARPA. We thank Matt Smear, Roman Shusterman, and Yevgeniy Sirotin for their input and technical help during early phases of the project; Nao Uchida for discussions regarding sensory thresholds; Admir Resulaj for technical help with olfactometry; Sarah Kaye, Dillon Cawley, Hardik Patel, Tiffany Teng, and Amanda Menzie for technical support; and William Kath and Rosemary Braun for statistical advice. We acknowledge Lynn Doglio and the Transgenesis and Targeted Mutagenesis Laboratory at Northwestern University for transgenic mouse production.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - In many species, survival depends on olfaction, yet the mechanisms that underlie olfactory sensitivity are not well understood. Here we examine how a conserved subset of olfactory receptors, the trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs), determine odor detection thresholds of mice to amines. We find that deleting all TAARs, or even single TAARs, results in significant odor detection deficits. This finding is not limited to TAARs, as the deletion of a canonical odorant receptor reduced behavioral sensitivity to its preferred ligand. Remarkably, behavioral threshold is set solely by the most sensitive receptor, with no contribution from other highly sensitive receptors. In addition, increasing the number of sensory neurons (and glomeruli) expressing a threshold-determining TAAR does not improve detection, indicating that sensitivity is not limited by the typical complement of sensory neurons. Our findings demonstrate that olfactory thresholds are set by the single highest affinity receptor and suggest that TAARs are evolutionarily conserved because they determine the sensitivity to a class of biologically relevant chemicals.
AB - In many species, survival depends on olfaction, yet the mechanisms that underlie olfactory sensitivity are not well understood. Here we examine how a conserved subset of olfactory receptors, the trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs), determine odor detection thresholds of mice to amines. We find that deleting all TAARs, or even single TAARs, results in significant odor detection deficits. This finding is not limited to TAARs, as the deletion of a canonical odorant receptor reduced behavioral sensitivity to its preferred ligand. Remarkably, behavioral threshold is set solely by the most sensitive receptor, with no contribution from other highly sensitive receptors. In addition, increasing the number of sensory neurons (and glomeruli) expressing a threshold-determining TAAR does not improve detection, indicating that sensitivity is not limited by the typical complement of sensory neurons. Our findings demonstrate that olfactory thresholds are set by the single highest affinity receptor and suggest that TAARs are evolutionarily conserved because they determine the sensitivity to a class of biologically relevant chemicals.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-05129-0
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-05129-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 30038239
AN - SCOPUS:85050614912
VL - 9
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 2887
ER -