Competitive binding predicts nonlinear responses of olfactory receptors to complex mixtures.

ABSTRACT: In color vision, the quantitative rules for mixing lights to make a target color are well understood. By contrast, the rules for mixing odorants to make a target odor remain elusive. A solution to this problem in vision relied on characterizing receptor responses to different wavelengths of light and subsequently relating these responses to perception. In olfaction, experimentally measuring receptor responses to a representative set of complex mixtures is intractable due to the vast number of possibilities. To meet this challenge, we develop a biophysical model that predicts mammalian receptor responses to complex mixtures using responses to single odorants. The dominant nonlinearity in our model is competitive binding (CB): Only one odorant molecule can attach to a receptor binding site a

SUBMITTER: Singh V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6511041 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature