The projection from the olfactory epithelium to the olfactory bulb in the salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum

Abstract

Odor quality may be represented as a "topographic" code of responses of receptor cells throughout the olfactory epithelium, with this code conveyed to the central nervous system by a topographic projection from the olfactory epithelium to the olfactory bulb. There is good evidence for topographic differences in odor-induced receptor cell activity in the tiger salamander but there is no evidence for a topographic epithelium-to-bulb projection in this species. In the present study 3H-leucine autoradiography was used to trace the projections of olfactory receptor neurons in the tiger salamander. Thirteen animals received small injections of tritiated leucine into different regions of the dorsal or the ventral olfactory epithelium, or into the ventrolateral, "vomeronasal organ". The results show that the anterior-to-posterior axes in the dorsal and ventral epithelia are represented along the ventral-to-dorsal axis in the rostral end of the olfactory bulb. The "vomeronasal organ" projects to the caudal end of the bulb. We conclude that the central projection of the olfactory epithelium in the tiger salamander is topographically organised only along the antero-posterior axis and not the medio-lateral axis. Thus epithelial receptor cell activity along the anteroposterior axis would be represented in the glomerular layer of the bulb by activity along its ventro-dorsal axis.