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John
H. Teeter, Ph.D.
Member, Monell Chemical Senses
Center
3500 Market Street/3308
(215) 898-5311; Fax: (215) 898-2084
email: teeter@pobox.upenn.edu
Click here for selected publications since Dr. Teeter's arrival at Penn
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Chemosensory transduction; synaptic organization of taste buds; pheromone
communication; orientation to chemosensory cues. RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Patch-clamp, voltage-clamp, fluorescence imaging, receptor/channel reconstitution, expression cloning, and video tracking.RESEARCH SUMMARY
The Teeter lab has a primary interest in signal transduction in vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons and taste receptor cells. Stimulus activation of olfactory receptor neurons involves G-protein-coupled formation of intracellular second messengers, which in turn directly regulate ion channels in the receptor cilia. Several distinct mechanisms have been implicated in the transduction of different classes of taste stimuli, including direct stimulus modulation of ion channels in the receptive membrane and stimulus-regulated formation of intracellular second messengers. We are using patch-clamp recording, fluorescence imaging techniques, ion channel reconstitution and oocyte expression to characterize stimulus- and second messenger-regulated ion channels in olfactory and taste receptor cells. In addition, voltage-sensitive dyes, calcium-indicators and markers of synaptic vesicle recycling are being used to identify functional interactions among cells with taste buds using a slice preparation. Video tracking studies are in progress to examine how catfish use their extensive array of external taste receptors to localize chemical signals and how this unique system interacts with olfactory and electrosensory inputs during orientation.
