Copper-mediated thiol potentiation and mutagenesis-guided modeling suggest a highly conserved copper-binding motif in human OR2M3.

ABSTRACT: Sulfur-containing compounds within a physiological relevant, natural odor space, such as the key food odorants, typically constitute the group of volatiles with the lowest odor thresholds. The observation that certain metals, such as copper, potentiate the smell of sulfur-containing, metal-coordinating odorants led to the hypothesis that their cognate receptors are metalloproteins. However, experimental evidence is sparse-so far, only one human odorant receptor, OR2T11, and a few mouse receptors, have been reported to be activated by sulfur-containing odorants in a copper-dependent way, while the activation of other receptors by sulfur-containing odorants did not depend on the presence of metals. Here we identified an evolutionary conserved putative copper interaction motif CC/CSSH, compri

SUBMITTER: Haag F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7256108 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature