Getchell, T. (1986). Functional Properties of Vertebrate Olfactory Receptor Neurons. Physiological Reviews, Vol. 66, No. 3.

University of California, Berkeley

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The olfactory receptor neurons are the major component in the olfactory sensory system. The olfactory receptor neuron is a bipolar neuron, the cell body is embedded in the nasal chamber and within the olfactory epithelium. Its nonmyelinated axon transduces the signal to the olfactory bulb without discontinuity.

Olfactory receptor neurons

The experiment on mice showed that an inverse agonist triggers the olfactory receptor to reduce its basal activity. Consequently, the olfactory receptors will induce the inhibitory responses, which include blockage of the CNG channel. But the above phenomenon was only observed in olfactory receptors which display basal activity.

The connection between basal activity, inhibitory responses, and inverse agonist

Of the 302 neurons in the C. elegans nervous system, 14 have been characterized as chemosensory, or olfactory, neurons that detect volatile odorants. Each type of chemosensory neuron is tuned to a specific odorant or set of odorants. For example, the AWA olfactory neurons are activated in reaction to diacetyl, thiazoles, and pyrazine. A single olfactory neuron expresses multiple types of olfactory receptors. Researchers test C. elegans via a chemotaxis assay to characterize the different olfactory receptors and their respective odorants. As an example, Sengupta et al (1996) matched the olfactory receptor gene “odr-10” specifically to diacetyl, and therefore to the AWA olfactory neuron.

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