Minute Impurities Contribute Significantly to Olfactory Receptor Ligand Studies: Tales from Testing the Vibration Theory
Open accessAbstract
Several studies have attempted to test the vibrational hypothesis of odorant receptor activation in behavioral and physiological studies using deuterated compounds as odorants. The results have been mixed. Here, we attempted to test how deuterated compounds activate odorant receptors using calcium imaging of the fruit fly antennal lobe. We found specific activation of one area of the antennal lobe corresponding to inputs from a specific receptor. However, upon more detailed analysis, we discovered that an impurity of 0.0006% ethyl acetate in a chemical sample of benzaldehyde-d 5 was entirely responsible for a sizable odorant-evoked response in Drosophila melanogaster olfactory receptor cells expressing dOr42b. Without gas chromatographic purification within the experimental setup, this impurity would have created a difference in the responses of deuterated and nondeuterated benzaldehyde, suggesting that dOr42b be a vibration sensitive receptor, which we show here not to be the case. Our results point to a broad problem in the literature on use of non-GC-pure compounds to test receptor selectivity, and we suggest how the limitations can be overcome in future studies.
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- Authors
- Paoli, M., Münch, D., Haase, A., Skoulakis, E., Turin, L., & Galizia, C. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Konstanz (DE)
- University of Trento (IT)
- Alexander Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center (GR)
- Corresponding author
- Galizia, C. G.
- Venue
- eneuro
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2017-05
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- ENEURO.0070-17.2017
- ISSN
- 2373-2822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5490255
- OpenAlex
- W2621671601
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 1.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- eNeuro (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- EMBO short term fellowship (ASTF 108-2015)
- DFG SPP1392 (SPP1392)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Ion Channels and Receptors
- Keywords
- antennal lobe, calcium imaging, Drosophila melanogaster
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Calcium, Drosophila melanogaster, Female, Odorants, Olfactory Pathways, Smell, Transcription Factors, Vibration, Olfactory Receptor Neurons, Receptors, Odorant, Drosophila Proteins, Animals, Genetically Modified, Green Fluorescent Proteins, Arthropod Antennae
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