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Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph

The peripheral structures of mammalian sensory organs often serve to support their functionality, such as alignment of hair cells to the mechanical properties of the inner ear. Here, we examined the structure-function relationship for mammalian olfaction by creating an anatomically accurate computat...

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Autores principales: Wu, Zhenxing, Jiang, Jianbo, Lischka, Fritz W., McGrane, Scott J., Porat-Mesenco, Yael, Zhao, Kai
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10309622/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37384594
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011119
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author Wu, Zhenxing
Jiang, Jianbo
Lischka, Fritz W.
McGrane, Scott J.
Porat-Mesenco, Yael
Zhao, Kai
author_facet Wu, Zhenxing
Jiang, Jianbo
Lischka, Fritz W.
McGrane, Scott J.
Porat-Mesenco, Yael
Zhao, Kai
author_sort Wu, Zhenxing
collection PubMed
description The peripheral structures of mammalian sensory organs often serve to support their functionality, such as alignment of hair cells to the mechanical properties of the inner ear. Here, we examined the structure-function relationship for mammalian olfaction by creating an anatomically accurate computational nasal model for the domestic cat (Felis catus) based on high resolution microCT and sequential histological sections. Our results showed a distinct separation of respiratory and olfactory flow regimes, featuring a high-speed dorsal medial stream that increases odor delivery speed and efficiency to the ethmoid olfactory region without compromising the filtration and conditioning purpose of the nose. These results corroborated previous findings in other mammalian species, which implicates a common theme to deal with the physical size limitation of the head that confines the nasal airway from increasing in length infinitely as a straight tube. We thus hypothesized that these ethmoid olfactory channels function as parallel coiled chromatograph channels, and further showed that the theoretical plate number, a widely-used indicator of gas chromatograph efficiency, is more than 100 times higher in the cat nose than an “amphibian-like” straight channel fitting the similar skull space, at restful breathing state. The parallel feature also reduces airflow speed within each coil, which is critical to achieve the high plate number, while feeding collectively from the high-speed dorsal medial stream so that total odor sampling speed is not sacrificed. The occurrence of ethmoid turbinates is an important step in the evolution of mammalian species that correlates to their expansive olfactory function and brain development. Our findings reveal novel mechanisms on how such structure may facilitate better olfactory performance, furthering our understanding of the successful adaptation of mammalian species, including F. catus, a popular pet, to diverse environments.
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spelling pubmed-103096222023-06-30 Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph Wu, Zhenxing Jiang, Jianbo Lischka, Fritz W. McGrane, Scott J. Porat-Mesenco, Yael Zhao, Kai PLoS Comput Biol Research Article The peripheral structures of mammalian sensory organs often serve to support their functionality, such as alignment of hair cells to the mechanical properties of the inner ear. Here, we examined the structure-function relationship for mammalian olfaction by creating an anatomically accurate computational nasal model for the domestic cat (Felis catus) based on high resolution microCT and sequential histological sections. Our results showed a distinct separation of respiratory and olfactory flow regimes, featuring a high-speed dorsal medial stream that increases odor delivery speed and efficiency to the ethmoid olfactory region without compromising the filtration and conditioning purpose of the nose. These results corroborated previous findings in other mammalian species, which implicates a common theme to deal with the physical size limitation of the head that confines the nasal airway from increasing in length infinitely as a straight tube. We thus hypothesized that these ethmoid olfactory channels function as parallel coiled chromatograph channels, and further showed that the theoretical plate number, a widely-used indicator of gas chromatograph efficiency, is more than 100 times higher in the cat nose than an “amphibian-like” straight channel fitting the similar skull space, at restful breathing state. The parallel feature also reduces airflow speed within each coil, which is critical to achieve the high plate number, while feeding collectively from the high-speed dorsal medial stream so that total odor sampling speed is not sacrificed. The occurrence of ethmoid turbinates is an important step in the evolution of mammalian species that correlates to their expansive olfactory function and brain development. Our findings reveal novel mechanisms on how such structure may facilitate better olfactory performance, furthering our understanding of the successful adaptation of mammalian species, including F. catus, a popular pet, to diverse environments. Public Library of Science 2023-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10309622/ /pubmed/37384594 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011119 Text en © 2023 Wu et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wu, Zhenxing
Jiang, Jianbo
Lischka, Fritz W.
McGrane, Scott J.
Porat-Mesenco, Yael
Zhao, Kai
Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
title Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
title_full Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
title_fullStr Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
title_full_unstemmed Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
title_short Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
title_sort domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10309622/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37384594
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011119
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