Olfactory receptors, research

Researchers at the MoneU Center (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) are using a variety of electrophysical and biochemical techniques to characterize the ionic currents produced in taste and olfactory receptor cells by chemical stimuli. These studies are concerned with the identification and pharmacology of the active ion channels and mode of production. One of the techniques employed by the MoneU researchers is that of "patch clamp." This method aUows for the study of the electrical properties of smaU patches of the ceU membrane. The program at MoneU has determined that odors stimulate intraceUular enzymes to produce cycUc adenosine 3, 5 -monophosphate (cAMP). This production of cAMP promotes opening of the ion channel, aUowing cations to enter and excite the ceU. MoneU s future studies wiU focus on the connection of cAMP, and the production of the electrical response to the brain. The patch clamp technique also may be a method to study the specificity of receptor ceUs to different odors, as weU as the adaptation to prolonged stimulation (3). 

Olfaction, research in, 18 383-384 Olfactory membrane, 11 567 Olfactory perceptions, 11 510-511 Olfactory receptors, 18 383-384 Olfactory response, 11 566-567 01igo(2-propenyloxy)methyloxyirane, sulfonation of, 23 720 Oligocyclic lattice host inclusion compounds, 14 177-179 Oligocyclic lattice hosts, 14 177 01igo(y-caprolactone)dimethylacrylate, in shape- memory polymer networks, 22 364... 

Maruniak, J. A., Silver, W. L., and Moulton, D. G. (1983). Olfactory receptors respond to blood-borne odorants. Brain Research 265,312-316. 

Zozulya S., Echeverri F. and Nguyen T. (2001) The human olfactory receptor repertoire. Genome Biol. 2, research 0018.1-0018.12. 

De Jong R. and Visser J. H. (1988) Specificity-related supression of responses to binary mixtures in the olfactory receptors of the Colorado potato beetle. Brain Research. 447, 18-24. 

Molecular genetic research of the olfactory receptor R. Axel, L. Buck... 

Research suggests that the odor of a particular molecule is determined more by its shape than by the presence of a particular functional group. For example, hexachloroethane (CI3CCCI3) and cyclooctane have no obvious structural similarities, but they both have a camphor-like odor, a fact attributed to their similar spherical shape. Each molecule binds to spherically shaped olfactory receptors present on the nerve endings in the nasal passage, resulting in similar odors (Figure 5.13). 

The structure/activity relationship (SAR) tools employed in odor research are essentially the same standard tools used in all applications, and the models developed fall into the categories of substrate and receptor models. The pharmaceutical industry is the leader in SAR techniques, and the fragrance industry tends to follow its lead. Early models were substrate based, but the discovery of the genes that code for the olfactory receptor proteins has also allowed receptor models to be constructed. 

B.S. Hansson, Antennal lobe projection patterns of pheromone-specific olfactory receptor neurons in moths, in Insect pheromone research new directions, R.T. Carde, A.K. Minks (eds.), Chapman Hall New York, (1997), pp. 164-183. 

ULLAND, S., BICHAO, H., STRANDEN, M., R0STELIEN, T., BORG-KARLSON, A.-K., MUSTAPARTA, H., Olfactory receptor neurones tuned to linalool in moths and weevils structural-activity relationships. Conference Abstract, 2004, The 16th Congress of the European Chemoreceptlon Research Organization, Dijon,... 

Research in olfaction was revolutionized by the finding in of Buck and Axel in 1991 of a large family of manunalian genes which code for as many as 1000 olfactory receptors... 

Nil 14] Niimura Y., Matsui A., TouharaK., Extreme expansion of the olfactory receptor gene repertoire in African elephants and evolutionary dynamics of orthologous gene groups in 13 placental mammals , Genome Research, vol. 24, pp. 1485-1496, 2014. 

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