Fig. 5: OMP-KO neurons are silenced by mechanical stimulation.
a Setup for electrical recordings of ORN firing under mechanical puff stimulation. b, c Representative traces of firings induced by a single mechanical stimulus in (b) Het and (c) KO neurons. psi = pound-force per square inch. To define the boundaries of the accelerated phase (* or a blue bar) or the depressed phase (a red bar), the average of two adjacent ISIs was compared with ISIBasal. d, e Representative traces of firings induced by repetitive mechanical stimuli in (d) Het and (e) KO neurons. A stimulating puff with a duration of 200 ms at 2 Hz was applied for 20 s. f Time courses of the spontaneous- and mechanically induced firing rates of ORNs. The spontaneous firing rates before and after stimulation (basal and post) were calculated in 1-min bins, and the parastimulatory firing rates were calculated in 5-s bins (I–IV). n = 11 and 8 KO neurons; 9 and 13 Het neurons for 20 and 40 psi. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. g, h Representative trace and summary of the recovery from silencing in KO ORNs by a hyperpolarisation pulse from outside with a sudden increase in Vp to + 60 mV. Statistics: (f) one-way ANOVA and post hoc Bonferroni multiple-comparison test for different stimulation strengths (20 and 40 psi); n = 9–13 ORNs from 3 Het mice and 9–11 ORNs from 3 KO mice. Basal, i, ii, iii and iv, and Post: F(6, 39) = 1.317, P < 0.0001; F(6, 39) = 31.69, P < 0.0001; F(6, 39) = 47.54, P < 0.0001; F(6, 39) = 28.61, P < 0.0001; F(6, 39) = 24.65, P < 0.0001; F(6, 39) = 1.674, P = 0.19, respectively. Bonferroni test: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; P > 0.05 for all the other pairs. h Paired two-sided T test; no significant difference (ns), n = 5 recordings. Mean ± s.d.
