Disrupted compartmental organization of axons and dendrites within olfactory glomeruli of mice deficient in the olfactory cell adhesion molecule, OCAM
- 1 May 2006
- journal article
- Published by Elsevier BV in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
- Vol. 32 (1-2), 1-14
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcn.2006.01.013
Abstract
There is an overall topographic connectivity in the axonal projections of olfactory sensory neurons from the olfactory epithelium (OE) to the olfactory bulb (OB). The molecular determinants of this overall topographic OE–OB connectivity are not known. For 20 years, the intriguing expression pattern of the olfactory cell adhesion molecule (OCAM) has made it the leading candidate as determinant of overall topographic OE–OB connectivity. Here, we have generated a strain of OCAM knockout mice by gene targeting. There were no obvious alterations in the distribution of olfactory sensory neurons within the OE or in the coalescence of axons into specific glomeruli. However, the compartmental organization of dendrites and axons within the glomeruli was disrupted. Surprisingly, the mutant mice exhibited an increase in olfactory acuity; they appeared to have a better sense of smell. Thus, despite its striking expression pattern, OCAM is not essential for overall topographic OE–OB connectivity. Instead, OCAM is required for establishing or maintaining the compartmental organization and the segregation of axodendritic and dendrodendritic synapses within glomeruli.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Institutes of Health
- Canadian Association of Gastroenterology
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Continuous and Overlapping Expression Domains of Odorant Receptor Genes in the Olfactory Epithelium Determine the Dorsal/Ventral Positioning of Glomeruli in the Olfactory BulbJournal of Neuroscience, 2005
- NQO1 activity in the main and the accessory olfactory systems correlates with the zonal topography of projection mapsEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2004
- Semaphorin 3A‐mediated axon guidance regulates convergence and targeting of P2 odorant receptor axonsEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2004
- Odorant Receptor Expression Patterns Are Restored in Lesion-Recovered Rat Olfactory EpitheliumJournal of Neuroscience, 2004
- On the topographic targeting of basal vomeronasal axons through Slit-mediated chemorepulsionDevelopment, 2003
- Synaptic adhesion moleculesCurrent Opinion in Cell Biology, 2003
- Inverse expression of olfactory cell adhesion molecule in a subset of olfactory axons and a subset of mitral/tufted cells in the developing rat main olfactory bulbJournal of Comparative Neurology, 2003
- Zonal organization of the mammalian main and accessory olfactory systemsPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2000
- Compartmental organization of the olfactory bulb glomerulusJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1999
- Visualizing an Olfactory Sensory MapCell, 1996