title: On the ORigin of smell: odorant receptors in insects.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, Box 63, New York, New York, 10021, USA. bentonr@mail.rockefeller.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Benton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology; D025461:Feedback, Physiological; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D008322:Mammals / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D005810:Multigene Family; D009812:Odorants; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D018035:Receptors, Odorant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; C492465:Orco protein, Drosophila; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D018035:Receptors, Odorant; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins