BIO 3303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Taste Bud, Vomeronasal Organ, Olfactory Receptor

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO 3303
• Professor: Emily Standen

Document Summary

Many types of chemoreceptors used to sense internal and external chemical environments. Chemoreceptor: cell specialized for transduction of environmental chemicals. Internal chemoreceptors: detect changes in o2, co2 and ph. External chemoreceptors: detect airborne and dissolved chemicals (olfaction and gustation) Gustation: taste buds; oral cavity (especially tongue, also larynx, soft palate); esophagus. Olfaction: odorants: olfactory epithelium, pheromones: vomeronasal organ (vestigial in humans) Usually to do with pheromones and mate choice. More close to smelling than tasting (because smaller concentrations of it are being sensed) -- in humans there in fetuses and disappears in adults; olfactory epi: all other smells. Curling of upper lip to facilitate the transfer of pheromones into vomeronasal organ. Trying to get air into the vomeronasal organ so that they can sense (sniffing). Sense receptors and taste buds spread out all over head tasting with their whole head. Catfish taste buds all over their bodies.