TRP2: a candidate transduction channel for mammalian pheromone sensory signaling.

ABSTRACT: The vomeronasal organ (VNO) of terrestrial vertebrates plays a key role in the detection of pheromones, chemicals released by animals that elicit stereotyped sexual and aggressive behaviors among conspecifics. Sensory transduction in the VNO appears unrelated to that in the vertebrate olfactory and visual systems: the putative pheromone receptors of the VNO are evolutionarily independent from the odorant receptors and, in contrast to vertebrate visual and olfactory transduction, vomeronasal transduction is unlikely to be mediated by cyclic-nucleotide-gated channels. We hypothesized that sensory transduction in the VNO might instead involve an ion channel of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family, members of which mediate cyclic-nucleotide-independent sensory responses in Drosophila

SUBMITTER: Liman ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC21939 | biostudies-literature | 1999 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature