Sensory Transduction

E. Bignetti, S. Grolli and R. Ramoni Istitu to di Biologia M olecolare Universita' di Parma, Italy Vertebrate olfactory neurons, the receptors cells in the nose that sense odorants, are con tinously dying and replaced from differentiating staminal cells located at the basal lamina of the epithelium. Eventhough the neuronal turnover in the nose represents an exceptional property in the nervous system, it is not yet understood. In analogy with the immune system behaviour, olfaction shows high plasticity and sensitivity in odorant reception and coding. On the basis of this analogy we postulate that the turnover of olfactory neurons and their spectrum of sensitivity is dependent on environmental odorants. To test this hypothesis, we follow staminal cells proliferation and differentiation in controlled conditions, i.e. in vitro, by means of a monoclonal antibody against an antigen of the staminal cells.