Molecular bases of odor discrimination: Reconstitution of olfactory receptors that recognize overlapping sets of odorants.

ABSTRACT: The vertebrate olfactory system discriminates a wide variety of odorants by relaying coded information from olfactory sensory neurons in the olfactory epithelium to olfactory cortical areas of the brain. Recent studies have shown that the first step in odor discrimination is mediated by approximately 1000 distinct olfactory receptors, which comprise the largest family of G-protein-coupled receptors. In the present study, we used Ca(2+) imaging and single-cell reverse transcription-PCR techniques to identify mouse olfactory neurons responding to an odorant and subsequently to clone a receptor gene from the responsive cell. The functionally cloned receptors were expressed in heterologous systems, demonstrating that structurally related olfactory receptors recognized overlapping sets of odora

SUBMITTER: Kajiya K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6763140 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature