Olfactory glomeruli activity and odorant coding, whats it all about?
Answers:
As I’m sure you know, olfaction is smell (detecting chemicals dispersed in the air). The olfactory system is comprised of several parts that trap, detect, and identify odour molecules in the air. Olfactory epithelia in the nose have cilia on the surface to trap odour molecules, olfactory receptors (to receive the odour molecule, or “signal”) and signal transduction machinery (to pass the signal in another chemical/electronic form to the brain so it can be decoded – i.e. work out what the smell is).
I’m not entirely sure about olfactory glomeruli… a glomerulus is a cluster of small capillaries that act as a filter (for example the Bowman’s Capsule in the kidney) and I haven’t found any evidence for this in the olfactory system.
As for odorant coding, that means how the odour molecule is interpreted and recognised as a smell. There are hundreds of different olfactory receptors, each recognising different odour molecules, and each olfactory cell responds to a specific set of odorants (it is not yet known whether this is via one or many receptors). Either way, the principle is similar to that of enzyme binding to substrate – each odorant has a specific chemical structure so fits into only one (type of?) receptor (a GPCR, if you’re interested). The signal from this receptor is then relayed chemically and finally electrically along neurones and into the brain, where the smell is decoded.
Hope this helps…?
i think its great that you can spell those words and are now trying to understand them ?/ good luck cause i havnt got an idea of what you on about
Smelling stuff.
huh?
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