Publications by authors named "Zachary D Whiddon"
Taste bud cells in the tongue transduce taste information from chemicals in food and transmit this information to gustatory neurons in the geniculate ganglion that innervate taste buds. The peripheral taste system is a dynamic environment where taste bud cells are continuously replaced, but further understanding of this phenomenon has been limited by the inability to directly observe this process. To overcome this challenge, we combined chronic in vivo two-photon laser scanning microscopy with genetic labeling of gustatory neurons and taste buds to observe how cells within the taste bud change over time.
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- Peripheral taste neurons show a range of functional, genetic, and structural differences, but how these factors create distinct types is still not well understood.
- This study focused on proenkephalin-expressing taste neurons in mice, finding that their axon branching patterns were diverse and not strictly defined by neuron type.
- The research suggests that these neurons are more responsive to aversive tastes, indicating that genetic factors might categorize taste neurons by their responses to different flavors rather than by single stimulus types.
Taste bud cells are constantly replaced in taste buds as old cells die and new cells migrate into the bud. The perception of taste relies on new taste bud cells integrating with existing neural circuitry, yet how these new cells connect with a taste ganglion neuron is unknown. Do taste ganglion neurons remodel to accommodate taste bud cell renewal? If so, how much of the structure of taste axons is fixed and how much remodels? Here, we measured the motility and branching of individual taste arbors (the portion of the axon innervating taste buds) in mice over time with two-photon in vivo microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTaste neurons are functionally and molecularly diverse, but their morphologic diversity remains completely unexplored. Using sparse cell genetic labeling, we provide the first reconstructions of peripheral taste neurons. The branching characteristics across 96 taste neurons show surprising diversity in their complexities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensory processing is susceptible to decline with age. The sense of taste is, however, generally thought to be resistant to aging. We investigated how chorda-tympani nerve responses and fungiform-taste pores are affected by aging in the Sprague-Dawley rat, a model system for salt taste.
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