title: Molecular determinants of odorant receptor function in insects.
abstract: The olfactory system of Drosophila melanogaster provides a powerful model to study molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying function of a sensory system. In the 1970s Siddiqi and colleagues pioneered the application of genetics to olfactory research and isolated several mutant Drosophila with odorant-specific defects in olfactory behaviour, suggesting that odorants are detected differentially by the olfactory system. Since then basic principles of olfactory system function and development have emerged using Drosophila as a model. Nearly four decades later we can add computational methods to further our understanding of how specific odorants are detected by receptors. Using a comparative approach we identify two categories of short amino acid sequence motifs: ones that are conserved family-wide predominantly in the C-terminal half of most receptors, and ones that are present in receptors that detect a specific odorant, 4-methylphenol, found predominantly in the N-terminal half. The odorant-specific sequence motifs are predictors of phenol detection in Anopheles gambiae and other insects, suggesting they are likely to participate in odorant binding. Conversely, the family-wide motifs are expected to participate in shared functions across all receptors and a mutation in the most conserved motif leads to a reduction in odor response. These findings lay a foundation for investigating functional domains within odorant receptors that can lead to a molecular understanding of odor detection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA, anand.ray@ucr.edu.
authors.forename: Anandasankar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Wynand Goes
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: van Naters
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Carlson
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D020816:Amino Acid Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010636:Phenols / Q000378:metabolism; D018035:Receptors, Odorant / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013268:Stimulation, Chemical; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D010636:Phenols; D018035:Receptors, Odorant