Low survival rate of young adult-born olfactory sensory neurons in the undamaged mouse olfactory epithelium

Olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) are generated throughout life from progenitor cells in the olfactory epithelium. OSN axons project in an odorant receptor-specific manner to the olfactory bulb (OB), forming an ordered array of glomeruli where they provide sensory input to OB neurons. The tetracycline transactivator (tTA) system permits developmental stage-specific expression of reporter genes in OSNs and has been widely used for structural and functional studies of the development and plasticity of the mouse olfactory system. However, the cellular ages at which OSNs stop expressing reporters driven by the immature OSN-specific G8-tTA driver line and begin to express reporters driven by the mature OSN-specific OMP-tTA driver line have not been directly determined. We pulse-labeled terminally dividing cells in the olfactory epithelium of 28-day-old (P28) mice with EdU and analyzed EdU labeling in OSNs expressing fluorescent reporter proteins under control of either the G8-tTA or OMP-tTA driver line 5-14days later. Expression of OMP-tTA-driven reporters began in 6-day-old OSNs, while the vast majority of newborn OSNs did not express G8-tTA-driven fluorescent proteins beyond 8days of cellular age. Surprisingly, we also found a low survival rate for P28-born OSNs, very few of which survived for more than 14days. We propose that OSN survival requires the formation of stable synaptic connections and hence may be dependent on organismal age.