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Olfaction

Olfaction

The sense of smell is achieved through the activities of the olfactory system. It starts when an airborne odorant enters the nasal cavity and reaches olfactory epithelium (OE). The OE is protected by a thin layer of mucus, which also serves the purpose of dissolving more complex compounds into simpler chemical odorants. The size of the OE and the density of sensory neurons varies among species; in humans, the OE is only about 9-10 cm2.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...

Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure

Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure

The process of olfaction, also known as the sense of smell, is a sophisticated chemical response system. The specialized sensory neurons that facilitate this process, known as olfactory receptor neurons, are situated in an upper segment of the nasal cavity, known as the olfactory epithelium. Olfactory sensory neurons are bipolar, with their dendrites extending from the epithelium's apex into the mucus that lines the nasal cavity. Airborne molecules, when inhaled, traverse the olfactory...

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Dog olfactory receptor gene expression profiling using samples derived from nasal epithelium brushing.

Naoual Azzouzi¹, Anne-Sophie Guillory¹, Gilles Chaudieu²

¹UMR6290 IGDR (Institut de Génétique Et Développement de Rennes), Université de Rennes 1, CNRS, 35000, Rennes, France.

Canine Medicine and Genetics

|May 20, 2022

Summary

Researchers developed a novel nasal brushing method to analyze gene expression in dog olfactory receptors (ORs). This technique reveals significant variations in OR gene expression, with some genes being unexpressed, paving the way for breed-specific smell ability studies.

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Area of Science:

Animal Science
Genomics
Olfactory Biology

Background:

Dogs possess a highly developed sense of olfaction, crucial for tasks like detection.
The canine olfactory system relies on a large number of olfactory receptor (OR) genes for detecting volatile compounds.
The extent of OR gene expression on cell surfaces in dogs is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and validate a non-invasive method for assessing olfactory receptor gene expression in dogs.
To quantify the expression levels of olfactory receptor genes in canine nasal epithelial cells.
To investigate variations in olfactory receptor gene expression within and between dogs.

Main Methods:

A nasal brushing technique was established to collect canine nasal epithelial cells for RNA extraction.
High-quality cDNA libraries were prepared and subjected to hybridization capture using a comprehensive set of oligonucleotides.
Gene expression levels were quantified using next-generation sequencing (NGS), with reproducibility assessed through replicate samples and DNA library comparisons.

Main Results:

A significant variation in olfactory receptor (OR) gene expression was observed, with expression ratios between the highest and lowest expressed ORs exceeding 10,000.
A subset of OR genes were found to be consistently unexpressed across samples.
The nasal brushing method demonstrated reproducibility and was validated against a nasal epithelium biopsy approach.

Conclusions:

The developed nasal brushing method provides a reliable tool for studying canine olfactory receptor gene expression.
Significant paralog variation in OR gene expression exists in dogs.
This research lays the groundwork for investigating the relationship between OR gene expression, life experiences, and breed-specific olfactory abilities.