Ric-8B promotes functional expression of odorant receptors

Odorants are detected by a large family of odorant receptors (ORs) expressed in the nose. The information provided by the ORs is transmitted to specific regions of the brain, leading to odorant perception. The determination of the odorant specificities of the different ORs will contribute to the understanding of how odorants are discriminated by the olfactory system. However, to date only a few ORs have been linked to odorants they recognize, because ORs are poorly expressed on the cell surface of heterologous cells. Here we show that Ric-8B, a putative guanine nucleotide exchange factor for G alpha olf, promotes efficient heterologous expression of ORs. Our results also show that Ric-8B enhances accumulation of Gaolf at the cell periphery, indicating that it promotes functional OR expression by improving the efficiency of OR coupling to Gaolf. Expression systems containing Gaolf and Ric-8B should contribute to the functional characterization of ORs.