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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 22, 2004, 24(38):8383-8390; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2222-04.2004

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 Previous Article

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Molecular Organization of the Olfactory Septal Organ

Huikai Tian and Minghong Ma

Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

The septal organ in the mammalian nose is a distinct chemosensory organ sitting in the air path. To gain insights into its organization and function, we analyzed the chemoreceptors expressed in this area. By combining cDNA cloning, Affymetrix (Santa Clara, CA) genechips covering all the mouse olfactory receptor genes, and in situ hybridization, we achieved a relatively complete expression profile of the olfactory receptor genes in the septal organ. The majority of the septal neurons express only a few receptor genes in varying patterns, with the top one in 50% of the cells and the top eight together in 93% of the cells. We demonstrated that a single neuron expresses only one receptor by a thorough combination of all the major septal receptor genes in double-labeling studies. These septal receptor genes do not form a single subfamily. Instead, these genes are distributed on a few major branches of the phylogenetic tree covering all the mouse olfactory receptors. Most of these genes are also concentrated in certain areas within the most ventral zone of the main olfactory epithelium, although their expression patterns do not match those in the septal organ. In contrary to the previous view of random distribution, our results indicate that certain olfactory receptors form "hot spots" in the nose.

Key words: septal organ; olfactory receptor; main olfactory epithelium; olfactory sensory neuron; microarray; genechip

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Received June 8, 2004; revised August 11, 2004; accepted August 13, 2004.

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