Hasegawa Sonoko, Hamada Shun, Kumode You, Esumi Shigeyuki, Katori Shota, Fukuda Emi, Uchiyama Yasuo, Hirabayashi Takahiro, Mombaerts Peter, Yagi Takeshi
KOKORO-Biology Group, Laboratories for Integrated Biology, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
Mol Cell Neurosci. 2008 May;38(1):66-79. doi: 10.1016/j.mcn.2008.01.016. Epub 2008 Feb 13.
Olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) that express the same odorant receptor project their axons to specific glomeruli in the main olfactory bulb. Protocadherin-alpha (Pcdha) proteins, diverse cadherin-related molecules that are encoded as a gene cluster, are highly concentrated in OSN axons and olfactory glomeruli. Here, we describe Pcdha mutant mice, in which the constant region of the Pcdha gene cluster has been deleted by gene targeting. The mutant mice show abnormal sorting of OSN axons into glomeruli. There are multiple, small, extraneous glomeruli for the odorant receptors M71 and MOR23. These abnormal patterns of M71 and MOR23 glomeruli persist until adulthood. Many M71 glomeruli, but apparently not MOR23 glomeruli, are heterogeneous in axonal innervation. Thus, Pcdha molecules are involved in coalescence of OSN axons into OR-specific glomeruli of the olfactory bulb.
表达相同气味受体的嗅觉感觉神经元（OSN）将其轴突投射到主嗅球的特定嗅小球。原钙黏蛋白-α（Pcdha）蛋白是一类编码为基因簇的多种钙黏蛋白相关分子，在OSN轴突和嗅小球中高度富集。在此，我们描述了Pcdha突变小鼠，其中Pcdha基因簇的恒定区已通过基因靶向被删除。突变小鼠表现出OSN轴突向嗅小球的异常分选。对于气味受体M71和MOR23，存在多个小的、额外的嗅小球。M71和MOR23嗅小球的这些异常模式一直持续到成年。许多M71嗅小球，但显然不是MOR23嗅小球，在轴突支配上是异质的。因此，Pcdha分子参与了OSN轴突聚集成嗅球中特定气味受体的嗅小球的过程。
