Olfactory Stimulation Regulates the Birth of Neurons That Express Specific Odorant Receptors

In mammals, olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) are born throughout life, ostensibly solely to replace damaged OSNs. During differentiation, each OSN precursor “chooses,” out of hundreds of possibilities, a single odorant receptor (OR) gene, which defines the identity of the mature OSN. The relative neurogenesis rates of the hundreds of distinct OSN “subtypes” are thought to be constant, as they are determined by a stochastic process in which each OR is chosen with a fixed probability. Here, using histological, single-cell, and targeted affinity purification approaches, we show that closing one nostril in mice selectively reduces the number of newly generated OSNs of specific subtypes. Moreover, these reductions depend on an animal’s age and/or environment. Stimulation-dependent changes in the number of new OSNs are not attributable to altered rates of cell survival but rather production. Our findings indicate that the relative birth rates of distinct OSN subtypes depend on olfactory experience.