Molecular determinants of odorant receptor function in insects

Ray, Anandasankar, Van Der Goes Van Naters, Wynand ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6808-0161 and Carlson, John R. 2014. Molecular determinants of odorant receptor function in insects. Journal of Biosciences 39 (4) , pp. 555-563. 10.1007/s12038-014-9447-7

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0250-5991
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2022 08:35
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/62749

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