Fig. 5.

Defects in localization of olfactory G proteins in rd16 mice. Olfactory epithelial sections were immunostained with antibodies to odorant-signaling molecules enriched in cilia (green) and costained with acetylated α-tubulin (red). (A) Gγ₁₃ is enriched in cilia of WT mouse OSNs and colocalizes with acetylated α-tubulin (merged image). (B) Gγ₁₃ is undetectable in the ciliary layer and is mislocalized to dendrites and cell bodies in rd16 mice. (C) Similar to Gγ₁₃ staining, G_olf is enriched in olfactory cilia and colocalizes with acetylated α-tubulin. (D) In the rd16 mice, G_olf is absent from olfactory cilia and, unlike Gγ₁₃, does not appear to redistribute within OSNs. (E and F) ACIII remains enriched in both WT and rd16 mice and colocalizes with acetylated α-tubulin in OSN cilia. (G and H) CNGA2 remains enriched in both WT and rd16 mice and colocalizes with acetylated α-tubulin in OSN cilia. (Scale bar, 10 μm.) (I) Fluorescence quantitation of immunohistochemical images represented in A–H. Data are averages of at least 30 images per protein from three discontinuous regions per olfactory epithelium. Four different mice were analyzed for both WT (filled bars) and rd16 (empty bars). ***, P < 0.001 as determined by an unpaired t test.