Flux detectors versus concentration detectors: two types of chemoreceptors

Dose-response curves relating the external stimulus concentration to receptor occupancy differ in two types of chemoreceptor organs. In 'concentration detectors' the receptor molecules at the receptor cell membrane are directly exposed to the external stimulus concentration; these organs exhibit the well-known hyperbolic dose-response relationship reflecting the association-dissociation of stimulus and receptor molecules. In contrast, 'flux detectors' accumulate the stimulus molecules in a perireceptor compartment. In flux detectors, deactivation of stimulus molecules may be in balance with arrival, as a prerequisite for producing a constant effective stimulus concentration at constant adsorptive flux of stimulus molecules. In a simple model of a flux detector in which receptor molecules themselves catalyze the deactivation, the dose-response relationship is linear. It reflects the rate of stimulus deactivation. If the deactivation is catalyzed by a separate enzyme, the dose-response relationship can be close to hyperbolic, or linear. In all cases, the receptor molecules are maximally occupied if the adsorptive flux equals or exceeds the maximum rate of stimulus deactivation. The time course of the receptor potential recorded from moths' pheromone receptors depends on the odor compound, which suggests that a peripheral process, possibly the stimulus deactivation, is the slowest, rate-limiting process of the transduction cascade. Further evidence comes from experiments with stimuli oversaturating the mechanism responsible for the decline of the receptor potential.