Abstract
An essential feature of the organization and function of the vertebrate and insect olfactory systems is the generation of a variety of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) that have different specificities in regard to both odorant receptor expression and axonal targeting. Yet the underlying mechanisms that generate this neuronal diversity remain elusive. Here we demonstrate that the Notch signal is involved in the diversification of ORNs in Drosophila melanogaster. A systematic clonal analysis showed that a cluster of ORNs housed in each sensillum were differentiated into two classes, depending on the level of Notch activity in their sibling precursors. Notably, ORNs of different classes segregated their axonal projections into distinct domains in the antennal lobes. In addition, both the odorant receptor expression and the axonal targeting of ORNs were specified according to their Notch-mediated identities. Thus, Notch signaling contributes to the diversification of ORNs, thereby regulating multiple developmental events that establish the olfactory map in Drosophila.
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Acknowledgements
We thank E. Buchner, A. Hofbauer, H. Bellen, F. Matsuzaki, Y. Hiromi and Y.-N. Jan for antibodies and L. Luo, L. Vosshall, K. Matsuno, the Bloomington stock center and the Drosophila Genetic Resource Center, Kyoto Institute of Technology, for fly stocks. We are grateful to K. Ito for the use of his laboratory's facility and also to all members of the Hama laboratory and Center for Developmental Biology for helpful discussion. This work was partly supported by a grant-in-aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas, Advanced Brain Science Project, from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
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K.E. designed and performed most of the experiments in this study. T.A. and Y.Y. assisted in the experiments. K.-i.K. identified a fly line AM29, which drives reporter gene expression in ORNs projecting to two glomeruli. K.E. and C.H. contributed to the writing of this paper.
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Endo, K., Aoki, T., Yoda, Y. et al. Notch signal organizes the Drosophila olfactory circuitry by diversifying the sensory neuronal lineages. Nat Neurosci 10, 153–160 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1832
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1832
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