Journal
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR LIFE SCIENCES
Volume 63, Issue 14, Pages 1579-1585Publisher
BIRKHAUSER VERLAG AG
DOI: 10.1007/s00018-006-6130-7
Keywords
olfaction; odorant receptor; signal transduction; GPCR; neuron; insect; mammal; evolution
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Olfaction, the sense of smell, depends on large, divergent families of odorant receptors that detect odour stimuli in the nose and transform them into patterns of neuronal activity that are recognised in the brain. The olfactory circuits in mammals and insects display striking similarities in their sensory physiology and neuroanatomy, which has suggested that odours are perceived by a conserved mechanism. Here I review recent revelations of significant structural and functional differences between the Drosophila and mammalian odorant receptor proteins and discuss the implications for our understanding of the evolutionary and molecular biology of the insect odorant receptors.
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