Israel ISF-DFG ‒ Dynamics of Vomeronasal System Sampling: Mechanistic and Physiological Analysis of Vomeronasal Organ Function

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marc Spehr
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Experimental and Theoretical Network Neuroscience ; Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560939641

Organisms obtain information about their environment via sensory systems. In each system, peripheral sensory cells detect stimuli and relay information to central structures, where sensory input is processed to instruct physiological and behavioral responses. To optimize stimulus detection, sensory cells are often organized within elaborate peripheral structures, that evolved to detect, filter, amplify, and adapt to ethologically relevant sensory stimuli. Our research is based on the recognition that sensory organ physiology, and the manner by which stimuli are sampled, are essential elements for understanding all sensory systems. In this proposal, we study the mechanisms underlying sampling in the vomeronasal system (VNS), a chemosensory system present in most vertebrates, which is devoted to processing pheromones and other social cues. The sensory organ of the VNS is the vomeronasal organ (VNO), which is essentially a bilateral pump, located within each side of the nasal cavity. During periods of arousal, the VNO is activated, thereby sucking fluids containing semiochemicals from the nasal cavity. Due to its hidden location, the mechanisms and activation profiles of the VNO remained largely unknown. Thus, in comparison to all other known sensory systems, our understanding of VNO, and hence VNS function, is dramatically flawed. In our previous studies, we provided a revised view of the mechanisms underlying VNO pumping. Namely, we have shown that pumping is triggered by smooth muscle, rather than constriction of blood vessels as was once thought. In this research, focusing on mice, we defined two major goals. First, we intend to further explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying VNO sampling. Second, we will study how animals employ the VNO as they sample natural stimuli. To this end, we will combine a range of in vitro and in vivo techniques that we have developed over the years, as well as state-of-the-art imaging approaches that will allow us, for the first time, to image VNO function in intact mice in vivo. Together, our research promises to significantly expand our understanding of a crucial yet still poorly understood chemosensory system.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel
• Partner Organisation: The Israel Science Foundation
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Yoram Ben-Shaul