近日，英国剑桥大学Dana S. Galili等研究人员合作发现嗅觉系统中产生位置和身份的平行表征。2023年5月25日，《细胞》杂志在线发表了这项成果。

研究人员表明，单独的顺式十八碳烯乙酸酯（cVA）处理流提取定性和位置信息。cVA感觉神经元对雄性周围5毫米范围内的浓度差异作出反应。二阶投射神经元通过检测cVA浓度的触角间差异来编码雄性的角度位置，这些差异通过对侧抑制被放大。在第三回路层，研究人员确定了47种具有不同输入-输出连接的细胞类型。一个细胞群对雄性果蝇作出反应，第二个细胞群对嗅觉隐约作出调整，而第三个细胞群整合cVA和味觉，巧合地促进雌性交配。嗅觉特征的分离类似于哺乳动物的“什么”和“哪里”视觉流；再加上多感官整合，这使得行为反应适合于特定的行为性场景。

据介绍，在果蝇中，一个专门的嗅觉通道感知雄性信息素——cVA，促进雌性求偶，同时排斥雄性。

附：英文原文

Title: Generating parallel representations of position and identity in the olfactory system

Author: István Taisz, Erika Donà, Daniel Münch, Shanice N. Bailey, Billy J. Morris, Kimberly I. Meechan, Katie M. Stevens, Irene Varela-Martínez, Marina Gkantia, Philipp Schlegel, Carlos Ribeiro, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis, Dana S. Galili

Issue&Volume: 2023-05-25

Abstract: In Drosophila, a dedicated olfactory channel senses a male pheromone, cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA), promoting female courtship while repelling males. Here, we show that separate cVA-processing streams extract qualitative and positional information. cVA sensory neurons respond to concentration differences in a 5-mm range around a male. Second-order projection neurons encode the angular position of a male by detecting inter-antennal differences in cVA concentration, which are amplified through contralateral inhibition. At the third circuit layer, we identify 47 cell types with diverse input-output connectivity. One population responds tonically to male flies, a second is tuned to olfactory looming, while a third integrates cVA and taste to coincidentally promote female mating. The separation of olfactory features resembles the mammalian what and where visual streams; together with multisensory integration, this enables behavioral responses appropriate to specific ethological contexts.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.04.038

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00472-5