title: Olfactory receptor signaling.
abstract: The guanine nucleotide protein (G protein)-coupled receptors (GPCRs) superfamily represents the largest class of membrane protein in the human genome. More than a half of all GPCRs are dedicated to interact with odorants and are termed odorant-receptors (ORs). Linda Buck and Richard Axel, the Nobel Prize laureates in physiology or medicine in 2004, first cloned and characterized the gene family that encode ORs, establishing the foundations to the understanding of the molecular basis for odor recognition. In the last decades, a lot of progress has been done to unravel the functioning of the sense of smell. This chapter gives a general overview of the topic of olfactory receptor signaling and reviews recent advances in this field.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neural Systems (SisNE), Department of Physics, Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Antunes
authors.affiliation: Center for Mathematics, Computation and Cognition, Federal University of ABC, São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabio Marques
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Simoes de Souza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D055696:Olfactory Perception; D018034:Olfactory Receptor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D018035:Receptors, Odorant / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012903:Smell
chemical_list: D018035:Receptors, Odorant
keywords: Adaptation; GPCR cycling; Odorant responses; Olfactory receptors