Dataset Information

The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Dogs and rats have a highly developed capability to detect and identify odorant molecules, even at minute concentrations. Previous analyses have shown that the olfactory receptors (ORs) that specifically bind odorant molecules are encoded by the largest gene family sequenced in mammals so far.

Results

We identified five amino acid patterns characteristic of ORs in the recently sequenced boxer dog and brown Norway rat genomes. Using these patterns, we retrieved 1,094 dog genes and 1,493 rat genes from these shotgun sequences. The retrieved sequences constitute the olfactory receptor repertoires of these two animals. Subsets of 20.3% (for the dog) and 19.5% (for the rat) of these genes were annotated as pseudogenes as they had one or several mutations interrupting their open reading frames. We performed phylogenetic studies and organized these two repertoires into classes, families and subfamilies.

Conclusion

We have established a complete or almost complete list of OR genes in the dog and the rat and have compared the sequences of these genes within and between the two species. Our results provide insight into the evolutionary development of these genes and the local amplifications that have led to the specific amplification of many subfamilies. We have also compared the human and rat ORs with the human and mouse OR repertoires.

SUBMITTER: Quignon P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1257466 | biostudies-literature | 2005

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires.

Quignon Pascale P Giraud Mathieu M Rimbault Maud M Lavigne Patricia P Tacher Sandrine S Morin Emmanuelle E Retout Elodie E Valin Anne-Sophie AS Lindblad-Toh Kerstin K Nicolas Jacques J Galibert Francis F

Genome biology 20050928 10

<h4>Background</h4>Dogs and rats have a highly developed capability to detect and identify odorant molecules, even at minute concentrations. Previous analyses have shown that the olfactory receptors (ORs) that specifically bind odorant molecules are encoded by the largest gene family sequenced in mammals so far.<h4>Results</h4>We identified five amino acid patterns characteristic of ORs in the recently sequenced boxer dog and brown Norway rat genomes. Using these patterns, we retrieved 1,094 dog ...[more]

PMID: 16207354

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Project description:Dogs have an exquisite sense of olfaction. In many instances this ability has been utilized by humans for a wide range of important situations including detecting explosives and illegal drugs. It is accepted that some breeds have better senses of smell than others. Dogs can detect many volatile compounds at extremely low concentrations in air. To achieve such high levels of detection, the canine olfactory system is both complex and highly developed requiring a high density of olfactory receptors capable of detecting volatiles. Consequently the dog genome encodes a large number of olfactory receptor (OR) genes. However, it remains unclear as to what extent are all of these OR genes expressed on the cell surface. To facilitate such studies, a nasal brushing method was developed to recover dog nasal epithelial cell samples from which total RNA could be extracted and used to prepare high quality cDNA libraries. After capture by hybridization with an extensive set of oligonucleotides, the level of expression of each transcript was measured following next generation sequencing (NGS). The reproducibility of this sampling approach was checked by analyzing replicate samples from the same animal (up to 6 per each naris). The quality of the hybridization capture was also checked by analyzing two DNA libraries; this offered an advantage over RNA libraries by having an equal presence for each gene. Finally, we compared this brushing method performed on living dogs to a nasal epithelium biopsy approach applied to two euthanized terminally ill dogs, following consent from their owners.Comparison the expression levels of each transcript indicate that the ratios of expression between the highest and the least expressed OR in each sample are greater than 10,000 (paralog variation). Furthermore, it was clear that a number of OR genes are not expressed.The method developed and described here will allow researchers to further address whether variations observed in the OR transcriptome relate to dog 'life experiences' and whether any differences observed between samples are dog-specific or breed-specific.

Project description:For rodents, olfaction is essential for locating food, recognizing mates and competitors, avoiding predators, and navigating their environment. It is thought that rodents may have expanded olfactory receptor repertoires in order to specialize in olfactory behavior. Despite being the largest clade of mammals and depending on olfaction relatively little work has documented olfactory repertoires outside of conventional laboratory species. Here we report the olfactory receptor repertoire of the African giant pouched rat (Cricetomys ansorgei), a Muroid rodent distantly related to mice and rats. The African giant pouched rat is notable for its large cortex and olfactory bulbs relative to its body size compared to other sympatric rodents, which suggests anatomical elaboration of olfactory capabilities. We hypothesized that in addition to anatomical elaboration for olfaction, these pouched rats might also have an expanded olfactory receptor repertoire to enable their olfactory behavior. We examined the composition of the olfactory receptor repertoire to better understand how their sensory capabilities have evolved. We identified 1145 intact olfactory genes, and 260 additional pseudogenes within 301 subfamilies from the African giant pouched rat genome. This repertoire is similar to mice and rats in terms of size, pseudogene percentage and number of subfamilies. Analyses of olfactory receptor gene trees revealed that the pouched rat has 6 expansions in different subfamilies compared to mice, rats and squirrels. We identified 81 orthologous genes conserved among 4 rodent species and an additional 147 conserved genes within the Muroid rodents. The orthologous genes shared within Muroidea suggests that there may be a conserved Muroid-specific olfactory receptor repertoire. We also note that the description of this repertoire can serve as a complement to other studies of rodent olfaction, as the pouched rat is an outgroup within Muroidea. Thus, our data suggest that African giant pouched rats are capable of both natural and trained olfactory behaviors with a typical Muriod olfactory receptor repertoire.

Project description:Mammalian olfactory receptor genes (ORs) are a diverse family of genes encoding proteins that directly interact with environmental chemical cues. ORs evolve via gene duplication in a birth-death fashion, neofunctionalizing and pseudogenizing over time. Olfaction is a primary sense used for food detection in plant-visiting bats, but the relationship between dietary specialization and OR repertoire diversity is unclear. Within neotropical Leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae), many lineages are plant specialists, and some have a distinct OR repertoire compared to insectivorous species. Yet, whether specialization on particular plant genera is associated with the evolution of specialized, less diverse OR repertoires has never been tested. Using targeted sequence capture, we sequenced the OR repertoires of three sympatric species of short-tailed fruit bats (Carollia), which vary in their degree of specialization on the fruits of Piper plants. We characterized orthologous vs duplicated receptors among Carollia species, and explored the diversity and redundancy of the receptor gene repertoire. At the species level, the most dedicated Piper specialist, Carollia castanea, had lower OR diversity compared to the two generalists (C. sowelli and C. perspicillata), but we discovered a few unique sets of ORs within C. castanea with high redundancy of similar gene duplicates. These unique receptors potentially enable C. castanea to detect Piper fruit odorants better than its two congeners. Carollia perspicillata, the species with the most generalist diet, had a higher diversity of intact receptors, suggesting the ability to detect a wider range of odorant molecules. Variation among ORs may be a factor in the coexistence of these sympatric species, facilitating the exploitation of different plant resources. Our study sheds light on how gene duplication and changes in OR diversity may play a role in dietary adaptations and underlie ecological interactions between bats and plants.

Dataset Information

The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires.

Background

Results

Conclusion

Publications

The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires.

Similar Datasets

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