Olfactory sensory neurons transiently express multiple olfactory receptors during development

In mammals, each olfactory sensory neuron randomly expresses one, and only one, olfactory receptor (OR)—a phenomenon called the "one-neuron-one-receptor" rule. Although extensively studied, this rule was never proven for all ~1,000 OR genes in one cell at once, and little is known about its dynamics. Here, we directly tested this rule by single-cell transcriptomic sequencing of 178 cells from the main olfactory epithelium of adult and newborn mice. To our surprise, a subset of cells expressed multiple ORs. Most of these cells were developmentally immature. Our results illustrated how the "one-neuron-one-receptor" rule may have been established: At first, a single neuron temporarily expressed multiple ORs—seemingly violating the rule—and then all but one OR were eliminated. This work provided experimental evidence that epigenetic regulation in the olfactory system selects a single OR by suppressing a few transiently expressed ORs in a single cell during development.

Source: Molecular Systems Biology - December 8, 2015 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Tan, L., Li, Q., Xie, X. S. Tags: Chromatin, Epigenetics, Genomics & Functional Genomics, Genome-Scale & Integrative Biology, Neuroscience Reports Source Type: research