What a subpopulation tells about an odor

ARNEODO, EZEQUIEL M.; PENIKIS, KRISTINA B.; RABINOWITZ, NEIL; BOZZA, THOMAS; RINBERG, DMITRY

Lake Oncone, GA

Encuentro; 2016 PEW annual meeting; 2016

Pew Charitable trusts

Olfactory inputs are organized in an array of functional units (glomeruli), each relayinginformation from sensory neurons expressing a given odorant receptor to a small population ofoutput neurons, mitral/tufted (MT) cells. MT cells respond heterogeneously to odorants, andhow the responses encode stimulus features is unknown. We recorded in awake miceresponses from ?sister? MT cells that receive input from a functionally-characterized, geneticallyidentified glomerulus, corresponding to a specific receptor (M72). Despite receiving similarinputs, sister MT cells exhibit temporally diverse, concentration dependent, excitatory andinhibitory responses to most M72 ligands. In contrast, the strongest known ligand for M72 elicitstemporally stereotyped, early excitatory responses in sister MT cells, consistent across a rangeof concentrations. Our data suggest that information about ligand affinity is encoded in thecollective stereotypy or diversity of activity among sister MT cells within a glomerular functionalunit in a concentration-tolerant manner.