Redolfi Nelly, Lodovichi Claudia
Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), Padua, Italy; Neuroscience Institute, CNR, Padua, Italy.
Swiss Med Wkly. 2015 Dec 28;145:w14228. doi: 10.4414/smw.2015.14228. eCollection 2015.
Olfaction is a highly sophisticated sensory modality able to detect and discriminate thousands of different odours, even at very low concentration. How such a challenging task is achieved remains to be fully understood. A unique feature of the olfactory system is the dual role of the odorant receptor: it does detect odours in the olfactory epithelium but it also contributes to neuronal circuit formation in the olfactory bulb. The odorant receptors are indeed expressed on the cilia that protrude in the nasal cavity, where they bind odorants, and at the axon termini, where they could act as axon guidance molecules. In this review we discuss findings that show how the odorant receptor contributes in regulating neuronal connectivity.
嗅觉是一种高度复杂的感觉模式，即使在极低浓度下也能检测和区分数千种不同的气味。如何完成这样一项具有挑战性的任务仍有待充分理解。嗅觉系统的一个独特特征是气味受体的双重作用：它确实在嗅觉上皮中检测气味，但它也有助于嗅球中神经回路的形成。气味受体确实表达在鼻腔中突出的纤毛上，在那里它们与气味分子结合，并且在轴突末端，在那里它们可以作为轴突导向分子发挥作用。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了一些研究结果，这些结果表明气味受体如何在调节神经元连接中发挥作用。
