Chem. Senses 28: 87-104,
2003
© Oxford University Press 2003
RESEARCH PAPERS |
Sensitivity-dependent Hierarchical Receptor Codes for Odors
Life Electronics Laboratory, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 3-11-46 Nakoji, Amagasaki, 661-0974, Japan
Correspondence to be sent to: Dr Takaaki Sato, Tissue Engineering Research Center, AIST-Amagasaki, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 3-11-46 Nakoji, Amagasaki, Hyogo 661-0974, Japan. e-mail: taka-sato{at}aist.go.jp
Abstract
In order to comprehend the strategy of odor encoding by odorant receptors,
we isolated 2740 mouse receptor neurons from four olfactory epithelial zones
and classified them in terms of their sensitivities and tuning specificities
to a chiral pair of odorants, S(+)-carvone (caraway-like odor) and
R(-)-carvone (spearmint-like odor). Our approach revealed that the
majority of receptors at the lowest effective stimulus concentration
represented the principal odor qualities characteristic of each enantiomer by
means of the principal odor qualities of the odorants for which the receptors
were most sensitive. The chiral-non-discriminating receptors became 3.7 times
of R(-)-carvone-sensitive receptors in the subpopulations when the
stimulus concentration was increased 10-fold. More than 80% of the responsive
receptors (an estimated 70 ± 
types) exhibited overlapping
sensitivities between the enantiomers. The signals from the non-discriminating
receptors may be reduced to decode the characteristic odor identity for
R(-)-carvone in the brain over an adequate range of stimulus
strengths. The information processing of odors appears to involve the
selective weighting of the signals from the most sensitive receptors. An
analysis of the overall receptor codes to carvones indicated that the system
employs hierarchical receptor codes: principal odor qualities are encoded by
the most sensitive receptors and lower-ranked odor qualities by less sensitive
receptors.
Key words: calcium imaging, odorant, odor discrimination, odor quality, olfactory receptor neuron, sensory information processing
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