Moth pheromone-selective projection neurons with cell bodies in the antennal lobe lateral cluster exhibit diverse morphological and neurophysiological characteristics.

Olfactory projection neurons convey information from the insect antennal lobe (AL) to higher brain centers. Previous reports have demonstrated that pheromone-responsive projection neurons with cell bodies in the moth medial cell cluster (mcPNs) predominantly have dendritic arborizations in the sexually dimorphic macroglomerular complex (MGC) and send an axon from the AL to the calyces of the mushroom body (CA) as well as the lateral horn (LH) of the protocerebrum via the medial AL tract. These neurons typically exhibit a narrow odor tuning range related to the restriction of their dendritic arbors within a single glomerulus (uniglomerular). In this study, we report on the diverse physiological and morphological properties of a group of pheromone-responsive olfactory projection neurons with cell bodies in the AL lateral cell cluster (MGC lcPNs) of two closely related moth species. All pheromone-responsive lcPNs appeared to exhibit "basket-like" dendritic arborizations in two MGC compartments and made connections with various protocerebral targets including ventrolateral and superior neuropils via projections primarily through the lateral AL tract and to a lesser extent the mediolateral antennal lobe tract. Physiological characterization of MGC lcPNs also revealed a diversity of response profiles including those either enhanced by or reliant upon presentation of a pheromone blend. These responses manifested themselves as higher maximum firing rates and/or improved temporal resolution of pulsatile stimuli. MGC lcPNs therefore participate in conveying diverse olfactory information relating to qualitative and temporal facets of the pheromone stimulus to a more expansive number of protocerebral targets than their mcPN counterparts.