ATP modulates intracellular Ca2+ and firing rate through a P2Y1 purinoceptor in cane toad pacemaker cells |
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Authors: | Yue-kun Ju Wenbing Huang Lele Jiang Julian A Barden David G Allen |
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Institution: | Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA |
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Abstract: | Bipolar sensory neurons within the vomeronasal organ (VNO) are thought to mediate the detection of pheromones in vertebrates. In the mouse, VNO neurons respond to pheromones with a rise in intracellular Ca2+ that accompanies a depolarization of the cell. Transduction of the pheromone appears to occur through the activation of a phosphatidylinositol signalling pathway, but the ion channels that respond to this signalling pathway have not been identified. In this report patch-clamp recording from hamster vomeronasal sensory neurons was used to identify second-messenger-gated channels that might play a role in transduction. The results demonstrate that VNO neurons show abundant expression of a Ca2+-activated non-selective (CaNS) cation channel. The CaNS channel does not discriminate between Na+ and K+ and has a slope conductance of 22 pS. Half-activation of the channel occurs at a Ca2+ concentration of 0.5 m m (at -80 mV). The probability of opening ( P o) of the channel is further augmented at positive potentials, and shows an e-fold voltage dependence per 37 mV. The channel exhibits rapid rundown following patch excision with P o decreasing from near 1.0 to near 0. The adenine nucleotides ATP and cAMP block the channel with an apparent affinity of 3 and 42 μ m , respectively (-80 mV). Both the activation of the channel by Ca2+ and the block of the channel by adenine nucleotides show a mild voltage dependence, which can be accounted for by the voltage dependence of P o. The properties of this channel make it a candidate to either directly mediate vomeronasal sensory transduction, or to amplify the primary sensory response. |
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