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Chem. Senses 28: 509-522, 2003
© Oxford University Press 2003

Extracellular Transduction Events Under Pulsed Stimulation in Moth Olfactory Sensilla

Jean-Pierre Rospars1,2, Petr Lánsky3,5 and Vlastimil Krivan4,5

1 Unité de Phytopharmacie et Médiateurs chimiques, INRA, 78026 Versailles Cedex 2 Unité BIA, INRA, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas Cedex, France 3 Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14220 Prague 4 4 Institute of Entomology, Academy of Sciences, USB, Branisovská 31, 37005 Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic 5 Faculty of Biological Sciences, USB, Branisovská 31, 37005 Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic

Correspondence to be sent to: J.-P. Rospars, Unité de Phytopharmacie et Médiateurs chimiques, INRA, 78026 Versailles Cedex, France. e-mail: rospars{at}versailles.inra.fr

In natural conditions, pheromones released continuously by female moths are broken in discontinuous clumps and filaments. These discontinuities are perceived by flying male moths as periodic variations in the concentration of the stimulus, which have been shown to be essential for location of females. We study analytically and numerically the evolution in time of the activated pheromone-receptor (signaling) complex in response to periodic pulses of pheromone. The 13-reaction model considered takes into account the transport of pheromone molecules by pheromone binding proteins (PBP), their enzymatic deactivation in the perireceptor space and their interaction with receptors at the dendritic membrane of neurons in Antheraea polyphemus sensitive to the main pheromone component. The time-averaged and periodic properties of the temporal evolution of the signaling complex are presented, in both transient and steady states. The same time-averaged response is shown to result from many different pulse trains and to depend hyperbolically on the time-averaged pheromone concentration in air. The dependency of the amplitude of the oscillations of the signaling complex on pulse characteristics, especially frequency, suggests that the model can account for the ability of the studied type of neuron to resolve repetitive pulses up to 2 Hz, as experimentally observed. Modifications of the model for resolving pulses up to 10 Hz, as found in other neuron types sensitive to the minor pheromone components, are discussed.

Key words: intensity coding, neuron modelling, olfaction, pheromone, receptor, temporal coding


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