Antagonistic odor interactions in olfactory sensory neurons are widespread in freely breathing mice

Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 3;11(1):3350. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17124-5.

Abstract

Odor landscapes contain complex blends of molecules that each activate unique, overlapping populations of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs). Despite the presence of hundreds of OSN subtypes in many animals, the overlapping nature of odor inputs may lead to saturation of neural responses at the early stages of stimulus encoding. Information loss due to saturation could be mitigated by normalizing mechanisms such as antagonism at the level of receptor-ligand interactions, whose existence and prevalence remains uncertain. By imaging OSN axon terminals in olfactory bulb glomeruli as well as OSN cell bodies within the olfactory epithelium in freely breathing mice, we find widespread antagonistic interactions in binary odor mixtures. In complex mixtures of up to 12 odorants, antagonistic interactions are stronger and more prevalent with increasing mixture complexity. Therefore, antagonism is a common feature of odor mixture encoding in OSNs and helps in normalizing activity to reduce saturation and increase information transfer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Complex Mixtures / pharmacology*
  • Drug Antagonism
  • Female
  • Ligands
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton
  • Odorants*
  • Olfactory Bulb / cytology
  • Olfactory Bulb / diagnostic imaging
  • Olfactory Bulb / physiology
  • Olfactory Mucosa / cytology
  • Olfactory Mucosa / drug effects
  • Olfactory Mucosa / metabolism
  • Olfactory Perception / drug effects
  • Olfactory Perception / physiology*
  • Olfactory Receptor Neurons / drug effects
  • Olfactory Receptor Neurons / physiology*
  • Presynaptic Terminals / physiology
  • Receptors, Odorant / metabolism
  • Respiration
  • Smell / drug effects
  • Smell / physiology*

Substances

  • Complex Mixtures
  • Ligands
  • Receptors, Odorant