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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Cell Neurosci. 2008 May 11;38(4):518–525. doi: 10.1016/j.mcn.2008.04.013

Figure 1. GFP is expressed in mature olfactory sensory neurons of OMP-GFP knock-in mice.

Figure 1

(a) Coronal section though the olfactory epithelium of a transgenic adult mouse in which the transcription of GFP has been placed under the control of the OMP promoter. GFP expression is visible in the soma of neurons within the mature neuronal layer, labeled OSN between dashed yellow lines, and in their dendritic knobs (arrow) that protrude from the apical surface of the epithelia (A = apical; B = basal). (b) Dissociated cells from the olfactory epithelium of an adult OMP-GFP mouse. Mature sensory neurons retain GFP expression (green) while they are alive, and dead or dying cells within the culture stain positive for propidium iodide (PI, red) and no longer express GFP. While there are high numbers of both PI+ cells and GFP+ cells, there is very little overlap of the two labels, indicating that OSNs no longer express GFP as they are dying: of 310 GFP+ cells counted, only 1.6% of those GFP+ cells stained positive for PI. Therefore the GFP signal can be used as an indicator of live mature OSNs.