Microvillous receptor neurons

Trotier D., Dpving K., Ore K. and Shalchian-Tabrizi C. (1998). Scanning electron microscopy and gramicidin patch clamp recordings of microvillous receptor neurons dissociated from the rat vomeronasal organ. Chem Senses 23, 49-57. 

In most mammalian species, two functionally distinct classes of chemicals (odorants and pheromones) are detected and processed through anatomically segregated neural pathways the main olfactory system and the vomeronasal (accessory olfactory) system (Buck 2000 Mombaerts 2004). Volatile odorants are received by a large repertoire of ORs expressed on ciliated OSNs in the OE and the information is transmitted to the main OB. By contrast, pheromones are mostly received by two families of vomeronasal receptors (VIRs and V2Rs) expressed on microvillous sensory neurons in the vomeronasal organ that project their axons to the accessory OB. 

The intracellular processes which precede membrane activation appear to differ from those of MOE neurones, in that cyclic nucleotide gating may not occur. The transduction process which induces current flow in snake VN neurones, utilises as a putative second-messenger the modulator compound inositol triphosphate — Ins. (1,4,5) P3 = IP3 (Liu et al, 1999 Taniguichi et al, 2000). The proposed channel component associated with the microvillous membrane is one of the transient receptor potential family (TRPC-2 Heading Fig., pp. 94), the p-splice... 

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