A crucial step in the sense of smell is that where odorous compounds first bind to the ciliary membranes of the receptor cells in the nose. Biochemical research has revealed many of the steps in this transduction, by which the binding of a molecule is converted into a nerve signal carried to the brain. However it is not yet clear exactly where and how the important binding proteins are localized in the membrane, nor when during development these proteins become incorporated to function properly. This project uses a variety of biochemical tagging techniques along with electron microscopy to reveal where and when during development several important classes of olfactory transduction proteins are expressed in the ciliary membranes. These results will be correlated with the developmental timing of known electrophysiological and other cellular changes, to test predictions about the relation of membrane structures to function. The findings will have an impact on chemosensory research, and on general neuroscience because of the similarity of olfactory binding processes to cell-cell communication.
