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Smell the potassium
Date:7/29/2012

es but "in vivo"in the working VNOs of live micethey found a very different result: On balance the potassium channels now sent potassium ions in the inward direction. In fact, these two newly discovered channels seemed to account for more than half of the VNO-activating current.

This inflowing-potassium phenomenon is known to occur in another type of sensory neuron, the sound-sensitive cochlear hair cell, whose external environment contains relatively high levels of potassium. "This made us wonder whether the VNO also has a high level of potassium in the fluid surrounding its dendrites," says Kim.

It does. It turns out that the standard preparation of tissue slices for the initial patch-clamp experiments had washed away that naturally high concentration. The resulting low concentration had misleadingly caused potassium ions to be sucked out of VNO neuron dendrites when the SK3 and GIRK potassium channels were opened. "It's a cautionary tale that shows the importance of doing in vivo experiments," Yu says.

The finding that potassium channels contribute to the primary activation of the VNO could be a clue to the origins of the organ. "We speculate that the VNO may have evolved to have a high extracellular concentration of ions, as well as multiple ion channels, so that it remains functional even when it comes into contact with various ion-rich bodily fluids," Yu says. "The diversity of signaling pathways perhaps make it more robust in triggering innate behaviors."


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Contact: Gina Kirchweger
gxk@stowers.org
816-806-1036
Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Source:Eurekalert  

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