Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 8, 308-315, Copyright © 1988 by Society for Neuroscience
Monoclonal antibodies reveal cell-type-specific antigens in the sexually dimorphic olfactory system of Manduca sexta. II. Expression of antigens during postembryonic development
A Hishinuma, S Hockfield, R McKay and JG Hildebrand
Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
Two classes of monoclonal antibodies specific to the olfactory system of
Manduca sexta have been isolated: the olfactory-specific antibody (OSA),
which specifically recognizes many or all olfactory receptor cells (ORCs)
in both males and females, and the male olfactory-specific antibody (MOSA),
which stains male-specific receptor cells (principally or exclusively
sex-pheromone receptors present only in antennae of males; Hishinuma et
al., 1988). In the investigation reported here, we examined the expression
of the antigens during postembryonic development in order to correlate the
presence of particular antigens with the status of differentiation of the
ORCs or with their acquisition of particular functions. As assessed
immunocytochemically, the OSA recognizes certain epithelial cells in the
antennal imaginal disk of the fifth-instar larva. Later, during the first
70 hr of adult development, when differentiative cell divisions are
occurring in the antennal epithelium to generate ORCs and the other cells
that make up olfactory sensilla, no cells are stained. Immediately after
this period of mitoses, the OSA immunoreactivity reappears exclusively in
the ORCs, which begin to elaborate axons as an early event in their
differentiation. On immunoblots, the OSA recognizes specific sets of
molecules (distinguished on the basis of their apparent molecular weights):
53,000 and 59,000 Da antigens in the disk epithelial cells in the
last-instar larva; 53,000, 59,000, and 66,000 Da antigens in the ORCs from
15 to 60% of metamorphic adult development; and 42,000, 59,000, and 66,000
Da antigens in the ORCs from 60 to 100% of adult development. The MOSA also
recognizes a subset of the epithelial cells in the antennal disks in male
and female larvae.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)