Premium
Guest lecture: ‘Love at first smell: olfactory neurons with MHC‐like peptide binding properties’
Author(s) -
LeindersZufall Trese
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.108
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0625
pISSN - 0906-6705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0625.2008.00742_7.x
Subject(s) - major histocompatibility complex , biology , odor , olfaction , olfactory system , mechanism (biology) , sensory system , neuroscience , gene , evolutionary biology , genetics , philosophy , epistemology
Social interactions, such as finding and identifying a mate, often rely on the ability to sense molecular cues carrying information about genetic relationship and individuality. Genes residing in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence body odor and reproductive decisions in many vertebrate species. In mice, the olfactory sensory neurons respond to small peptides that also serve as ligands of MHC molecules. These MHC peptides constitute a large family of social recognition signals detected by sensory neurons in at least two olfactory subsystems, the mammalian main and the accessory olfactory systems. Interestingly, MHC peptides can be detected at extremely low concentrations, in the picomolar range, suggesting that specific mechanisms have evolved in the mammalian nose to assess the structural diversity of these molecules. Our results suggest a novel mechanism explaining the enigmatic influence of MHC genotypic diversity on behavior. This discovery proposes a mechanism by which animals identify other individuals of their species based on the unique structures of their immune‐system proteins.