Non-redundant coding of aversive odours in the main olfactory pathway

摘要

Many species are critically dependent on olfaction for survival. In the main olfactory system of mammals, odours are detected by sensory neurons that express a large repertoire of canonical odorant receptors and a much smaller repertoire of trace amine- associated receptors (TAARs)~(1-4). Odours are encoded in a combinatorial fashion across glomeruli in the main olfactory bulb, with each glom-erulus corresponding to a specific receptor~(5-7). The degree to which individual receptor genes contribute to odour perception is unclear. Here we show that genetic deletion of the olfactory Taar gene family, or even a single Taar gene (Taar4), eliminates the aversion that mice display to low concentrations of volatile amines and to the odour of predator urine. Our findings identify a role for the TAARs in olfaction, namely, in the high-sensitivity detection of innately aversive odours. In addition, our data reveal that aversive amines are represented in a non-redundant fashion, and that individual main olfactory receptor genes can contribute substantially to odour perception.%嗅觉对大部分动物都至关重要，但它依赖于数rn以千计的嗅觉受体基因，这些基因中某一个的rn删除通常几乎不会导致可以检测到的行为缺rn陷。Thomas Bozza及其同事发现，小鼠的一rn个“与痕量胺相关的受体”(TAAR4)的删除，rn会完全消除对低浓度的挥发性胺和对捕食者rn(美洲狮)尿液气味的厌恶。