Ion Transporter NKCC1 - Modulator of Neurogenesis in Murine Olfactory Neurons

Olfaction is one of the most crucial senses for vertebrates regarding foraging and social behavior. Therefore, it is of particular interest to investigate the sense of smell, its function on a molecular level, the signaling proteins involved in the process and the mechanism of required ion transport. In recent years, the precise role of the ion transporter NKCC1 in olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) chloride accumulation has been a controversial subject. NKCC1 is expressed in OSNs and is involved in chloride accumulation of dissociated neurons, but it had not been shown to play a role in mouse odorant sensation. To characterize transporter gene expression in NKCC1-/- mice, we examined the OE gene profile (Supplementary Table 1) using Illumina RNA-Seq to generate OE transcriptomes from NKCC1-/- and wild type mice. We analyzed RNA from OEs of male and female NKCC1+/+ (12 ± 1 weeks) and NKCC1-/- mice (16.5 ± 3.5 weeks, NMRI background); each RNA sample was prepared from an OE pool of 4 (mixed-gender pool RNA isolation) or 2 (gender RNA pool) different mice for each condition. Our data demonstrated the absence of a highly expressed ion transporter that could compensate for NKCC1. Overall design: The Illumina RNA-Seq protocol was utilized. In total, we amplified and sequenced up to 38 million 101 nt-long fragments from murine NKCC1+/+ and NKCC1-/- adult OEs.

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Haering C, Kanageswaran N, Bouvain P, Scholz P, Altmüller J, Becker C, Gisselmann G, Wäring-Bischof J, Hatt H