Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Cell. 2021 Dec 22;184(26):6326-6343.e32. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.11.022. Epub 2021 Dec 7.
Animals traversing different environments encounter both stable background stimuli and novel cues, which are thought to be detected by primary sensory neurons and then distinguished by downstream brain circuits. Here, we show that each of the ∼1,000 olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) subtypes in the mouse harbors a distinct transcriptome whose content is precisely determined by interactions between its odorant receptor and the environment. This transcriptional variation is systematically organized to support sensory adaptation: expression levels of more than 70 genes relevant to transforming odors into spikes continuously vary across OSN subtypes, dynamically adjust to new environments over hours, and accurately predict acute OSN-specific odor responses. The sensory periphery therefore separates salient signals from predictable background via a transcriptional rheostat whose moment-to-moment state reflects the past and constrains the future; these findings suggest a general model in which structured transcriptional variation within a cell type reflects individual experience.
动物在穿越不同环境时会遇到稳定的背景刺激和新的线索，这些刺激被认为是由初级感觉神经元检测到的，然后由下游的大脑回路进行区分。在这里，我们表明，小鼠中约 1000 种嗅觉感觉神经元 (OSN) 亚型中的每一种都具有独特的转录组，其内容由其气味受体与环境之间的相互作用精确决定。这种转录变化被系统地组织起来以支持感觉适应：与将气味转化为电脉冲相关的 70 多个基因的表达水平在 OSN 亚型中不断变化，在数小时内对新环境进行动态调整，并准确预测急性 OSN 特定的气味反应。因此，感觉外围通过一个转录变阻器将显著信号与可预测的背景区分开来，其瞬间状态反映了过去并限制了未来；这些发现表明了一个普遍的模型，即细胞类型内的结构化转录变化反映了个体经验。
