| Olfactory receptor | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ribbon structure of olfactory receptor OR51E2 (green) complexed with miniGs399 and a propionic acid ligand (orange). | |||||||||
| Identifiers | |||||||||
| Symbol | 7tm_4 | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF13853 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR000725 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Olfactory receptors (ORs), also known as odorant receptors, are chemoreceptors expressed in the cell membranes of olfactory receptor neurons and are responsible for the detection of odorants (for example, compounds that have an odor) which give rise to the sense of smell. Activated olfactory receptors trigger nerve impulses which transmit information about odor to the brain. In vertebrates, these receptors are members of the class A rhodopsin-like family of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).[1][2] The olfactory receptors form the largest multigene family in vertebrates consisting of around 400 genes in humans and 1400 genes in mice.[3] In insects, olfactory receptors are members of an unrelated group of ligand-gated ion channels.[4]
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- ^ Hussain A, Saraiva LR, Korsching SI (March 2009). "Positive Darwinian selection and the birth of an olfactory receptor clade in teleosts". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106 (11): 4313–8. Bibcode:2009PNAS..106.4313H. doi:10.1073/pnas.0803229106. PMC 2657432. PMID 19237578.
- ^ Niimura Y (December 2009). "Evolutionary dynamics of olfactory receptor genes in chordates: interaction between environments and genomic contents". Human Genomics. 4 (2): 107–18. doi:10.1186/1479-7364-4-2-107. PMC 3525206. PMID 20038498.
- ^ Hallem EA, Dahanukar A, Carlson JR (2006). "Insect odor and taste receptors". Annual Review of Entomology. 51: 113–35. doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.51.051705.113646. PMID 16332206.