Fig. 2: Silencing abGCs decreases the number and magnitude of odor-evoked responses in MCs.

a Schematic illustration of the experiment and timeline. b Micrograph from the OB (4 WPI). Insets—magnification of the dotted-line boxes. PGL/EPL/MCL/GCL peri-glomerular, external plexiform, mitral and granule cell layers, respectively. c Quantification of DREADD-virus specificity (filled bars; N = 20 mice, p = 0.17, Mann–Whitney U test). d A representative field of MCs expressing GCamp6f before and after CNO. e Examples of odor-evoked calcium transients before (blue) and after (red) CNO injection, from 8 neurons (shown in d) in response to 11 odors. Odor stimulation—2 s. Thin traces are five single trials; thick traces are means. Blue/Red plus signs mark a statistically significant difference between conditions, as a decrease or increase, respectively. Scale –100% dF/F. b blank. Odors: 1—valeraldehyde, 2—methyl propionate, 3—ethyl acetate, 4—butyraldehide, 5—ethyl tiglate, 6—propanal, 7—TMT, 8—female urine, 9—male urine, 10—peanut butter, 11—pups beddings. f, g Same as d, e but from NES– mouse. h Cumulative distribution of the proportion of MCs responding to 0–11 odors, before (blue) and after (red) CNO, in NES+ (top) and NES− (bottom) groups (NES+: n = 321 cells, p < 0.0001. NES−: n = 379 cells, p = 0.99, Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests). i Average ± SEM responses to odor stimulation before and after CNO administration. CNO induced a general decrease in response in NES+ mice (1258 cell-odor pairs) but not in NES− (1558 cell-odor pairs) mice. Black line—odor presentation, gray line—response window. Colored bar—t value between the before-after distributions as a function of time. j Response magnitude in ranked order, before and after CNO injection. The tuning curve is diminished only for NES+ mice (NES+: n = 321 cells, p < 0.0001; NES−: n = 379 cells, p = 0.6, Wilcoxon signed rank tests on cells curves’ standard deviations before vs. after CNO) k Difference in responsiveness following CNO (n = 700 cells, p << 0.0001, unpaired t test). l Difference in responses magnitude following CNO (n = 2816 cell-odor pairs, p << 0.0001, unpaired t-test). NES+: N = 10 mice; NES−: N = 10 mice, for all comparisons described in this figure. Statistical tests are two-sided, and error bars are SEMs.