Abstract
The sensory neurons of the olfactory epithelium demonstrate two remarkable characteristics. First, although each individual neuron has a restricted (yet broadly tuned) sensitivity to odorants, as a population they are capable of transducing literally millions of odorants and, in response to these odorants, generating differential patterns of neuronal activity that permit the discrimination of olfactory stimuli by higher centers. The selective responsivity of individual neurons, in combination with the breadth of sensitivity provided by the population of neurons in aggregate, is highly reminiscent of the immune system. However, odorant receptor molecules have not yet been unambiguously identified, and the generation of odorant response diversity during neuronal development is poorly understood as a consequence (see the chapter by Anholt in the present volume). Second, olfactory neurons are the only neurons in the mature mammalian nervous system that can be replaced when they die. A population of stem cells is present in the olfactory epithelium from which new neurons can differentiate to substitute for those sensory cells that die as a consequence of damage, either mechanical or chemical, or at the end of their “natural” lifespan.
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Schwob, J.E. (1992). The Biochemistry of Olfactory Neurons: Stages of Differentiation and Neuronal Subsets. In: Serby, M.J., Chobor, K.L. (eds) Science of Olfaction. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2836-3_4
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