Deep Sequencing of the Human Retinae Reveals the Expression of Odorant Receptors.
Several studies have demonstrated that the expression of odorant receptors (ORs) occurs in various tissues. These findings have served as a basis for functional studies that demonstrate the potential of ORs as drug targets for a clinical application. To the best of our knowledge, this report describes the first evaluation of the mRNA expression of ORs and the localization of OR proteins in the human retina that set a stage for subsequent functional analyses. RNA-Sequencing datasets of three individual neural retinae were generated using Next-generation sequencing and were compared to previously published but reanalyzed datasets of the peripheral and the macular human retina and to reference tissues. The protein localization of several ORs was investigated by immunohistochemistry. The transcriptome analyses detected an average of 14 OR transcripts in the neural retina, of whichOR6B3is one of the most highly expressed ORs. Immunohistochemical stainings of retina sections localized OR2W3 to the photosensitive outer segment membranes of cones, whereas OR6B3 was found in various cell types. OR5P3 and OR10AD1 were detected at the base of the photoreceptor connecting cilium, and OR10AD1 was also localized to the nuclear envelope of all of the nuclei of the retina. The cell type-specific expression of the ORs in the retina suggests that there are unique biological functions for those receptors.
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Nikolina
N
Jovancevic
Department of Cell and Matrix Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Mainz, Germany.
Kirsten A
KA
Wunderlich
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Claudia
C
Haering
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Caroline
C
Flegel
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Désirée
D
Maßberg
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Markus
M
Weinrich
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Lea
L
Weber
Department of Cell and Matrix Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Mainz, Germany.
Lars
L
Tebbe
Department of Ophthalmology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Munich, Germany.
Anselm
A
Kampik
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Günter
G
Gisselmann
Department of Cell and Matrix Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Mainz, Germany.
Uwe
U
Wolfrum
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Hanns
H
Hatt
Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum Bochum, Germany.
Lian
L
Gelis
immunohistochemistry (IHC); next-generation sequencing; odorant receptors; retina; transcriptome