Lowe G, Gold G H
Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Aug 15;92(17):7864-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.17.7864.
The sources of noise that limit olfactory signal detection were investigated in dissociated rat olfactory receptor cells. Near-threshold odorant-evoked currents exhibited large random fluctuation. However, similar fluctuations were observed in the absence of applied odorants when currents were induced by elevating the intracellular cyclic AMP concentration. This suggests that the fluctuations reflect noise intrinsic to the transduction mechanism, rather than the quantal nature of an odorant stimulus. For many odorants, this intrinsic noise may preclude the reliable detection of single odorant molecules.
在解离的大鼠嗅觉受体细胞中研究了限制嗅觉信号检测的噪声源。接近阈值的气味剂诱发电流表现出较大的随机波动。然而,当通过提高细胞内环状AMP浓度诱导电流时,在未施加气味剂的情况下也观察到类似的波动。这表明这些波动反映了转导机制固有的噪声,而不是气味剂刺激的量子性质。对于许多气味剂来说,这种固有噪声可能会妨碍对单个气味剂分子的可靠检测。