Chem. Senses 27: 789-801,
2002
© Oxford University Press 2002
Oscillatory Current Responses of Olfactory Receptor Neurons to Odorants and Computer Simulation Based on a Cyclic AMP Transduction Model
Animal Behaviour and Intelligence, Division of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan 1 Present address: Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, 200 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Avenue, St Paul, MN 55108, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Dr Noriyo Suzuki, Animal Behavior and Intelligence, Division of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan. e-mail: suzuki{at}sci.hokudai.ac.jp
Neural oscillatory activities triggered by odorant stimulation have been often reported at various levels of olfactory nervous systems in vertebrates. To elucidate the origin of neural oscillations, we studied first the oscillatory properties of current responses of isolated olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) of the rainbow trout to amino acid odorants, using a whole-cell voltage-clamp technique and found that the damped current oscillations were intrinsic in both ciliated and microvillous ORNs and occurred when ORNs were stimulated by odorants at high intensities. Continuous wavelet analysis using the Gabor function revealed that the dominant frequency of oscillations was 1.89 ± 0.50 Hz (mean ± SD, n = 92). There was no significant difference in oscillation frequency between the two types of ORNs and between different perfusion conditions with standard and Na+-free (choline) Ringer's solutions, but there was a slight difference in oscillation frequency between different holding potential conditions of negative and positive potentials. We then performed a computer simulation of the current responses with a cAMP olfactory transduction model. The model was based on the assumption that the current responses of ORNs were linearly related to the sum of concentrations of active cyclic-nucleotide-gated channels and Ca2+-activated Cl- channels, and was expressed by 12 differential equations with 44 different parameters. The simulation revealed that the oscillations of current responses of ORNs were mainly due to the oscillatory properties of intracellular cAMP and Ca2+ concentrations. The necessary reaction component for the oscillations in the transduction model was direct inhibition of adenylate cyclase activity by Ca2+. High Ca2+ efflux by the Na+Ca2+ exchanger and cAMP-phosphodiesterase activity were most influential on the oscillations. The simulation completely represented the characteristics of current responses of ORNs: odorant-intensity-dependent response, intensity-dependent latency and adaptation. Thus, the simulation is generally applicable to current and voltage responses of ORNs equipped with cAMP olfactory transduction pathway in other vertebrate species. The simulation programs for Macintosh (cAMP 9.2.7 and 9.2.8 for MacOS 8.1 or later) and cAMP JAVA applet versions based on cAMP 9.2.8 have been published on the world wide web (http://bio2.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/bio/chinou1/noriyo_home.html).
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
S. Watanabe, Y. Kirino, and A. Gelperin Neural and molecular mechanisms of microcognition in Limax Learn. Mem., August 26, 2008; 15(9): 633 - 642. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Reidl, P. Borowski, A. Sensse, J. Starke, M. Zapotocky, and M. Eiswirth Model of Calcium Oscillations Due to Negative Feedback in Olfactory Cilia Biophys. J., February 15, 2006; 90(4): 1147 - 1155. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. P. Dougherty, G. A. Wright, and A. C. Yew Computational model of the cAMP-mediated sensory response and calcium-dependent adaptation in vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons PNAS, July 26, 2005; 102(30): 10415 - 10420. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
N. Suzuki, M. Takahata, T. Shoji, and Y. Suzuki Characterization of Electro-olfactogram Oscillations and Their Computational Reconstruction Chem Senses, June 1, 2004; 29(5): 411 - 424. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||



