title: Wake up and smell the pheromones.
abstract: Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) are abundant proteins of unknown function expressed at high levels in insect and vertebrate chemosensory organs. In this issue of Neuron, Xu et al. show that Drosophila OBP76a is necessary for fruit flies to respond to the aggregation pheromone 11-cis vaccenyl acetate. The results suggest a mechanism by which this OBP is intimately involved in pheromone signal transduction.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, Box 63, New York, NY 10021, USA.
authors.forename: Leslie B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Vosshall
authors.forename: Marcus C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Stensmyr
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology; D018035:Receptors, Odorant / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C045648:odorant-binding protein; D010675:Pheromones; D018035:Receptors, Odorant