PUBLICATION
Physiological evidence for the discrimination of L-arginine from structural analogues by the zebrafish olfactory system
- Authors
- Lipschitz, D.L. and Michel, W.C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-000118-13
- Date
- 1999
- Source
- Journal of neurophysiology 82(6): 3160-3167 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Michel, William C.
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Adaptation, Physiological/physiology
- Animals
- Arginine/analogs & derivatives*
- Arginine/pharmacology*
- Discrimination, Psychological/physiology*
- Electrophysiology
- Female
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
- Immunohistochemistry
- Male
- Odorants
- Olfactory Receptor Neurons/physiology*
- Smell/physiology*
- Structure-Activity Relationship
- Zebrafish
- PubMed
- 10601449 Full text @ J. Neurophysiol.
Citation
Lipschitz, D.L. and Michel, W.C. (1999) Physiological evidence for the discrimination of L-arginine from structural analogues by the zebrafish olfactory system. Journal of neurophysiology. 82(6):3160-3167.
Abstract
Although it is generally assumed that fish are capable of discriminating amino acid odorants on the basis of differences in side-chain structure, less is known about their ability to discriminate amino acids with modifications to alpha-carboxyl and alpha-amino groups. In this study, the ability of the zebrafish olfactory system to detect and presumably discriminate analogues of the basic amino acid Arg was assessed, by using cross-adaptation and activity-dependent labeling techniques. Electrophysiological recordings established that esterification (L-arginine methyl ester; AME) or deletion (agmatine or amino-4-guanidobutane; AGB) of the alpha-carboxyl group yielded odorants more potent than Arg, whereas deletion of the alpha-amino group (L-argininic acid; AA) yielded a less potent analogue. In cross-adaptation experiments, no test-competitor odorant combination yielded complete cross-adaptation, suggesting the detection of these Arg analogues by multiple odorant receptors (ORs) with partially nonoverlapping specificities. Activity-dependent immunocytochemical labeling of olfactory receptor neurons supported this conclusion. AGB, an ion-channel-permeant probe (and odorant), labeled 4.9 +/- 0.4% (n = 24) of sensory epithelium, whereas the addition of Arg, 1-ethylguanidine sulfate, L-alpha-amino-beta-guanidinopropionate, or AME to AGB resulted in a significant elevation of labeling (8-14%). This study provides evidence that the olfactory system has the potential to discriminate among amino acid odorants with modified alpha-carboxyl and alpha-amino groups.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping