Research report 2015 - Max Planck Research Unit for Neurogenetics
Molecular neurogenetics of the mouse olfactory system
Authors
Mombaerts, Peter
Departments
Max-Planck-Forschungsstelle für Neurogenetik, Frankfurt am Main
Summary
In the mouse a repertoire of ~1100 odorant receptor genes has evolved to detect a very wide variety of chemical structures in the external environment. The team of Peter Mombaerts is pursuing a genetic approach to understand the mechanisms of odorant receptor gene choice and of axonal wiring in the mouse olfactory system. A novel type of chemosensory neurons has been discovered that do not express odorant receptor genes and appear to have a specialized chemosensory function.