Reed R R
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1992;57:501-4. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1992.057.01.055.
The sensitivity and specificity of the mammalian olfactory system is the result of the contributions at the anatomical, cellular, and biochemical levels. The recent identification of a large gene family encoding putative olfactory receptors suggests that genetic diversity may play an important role in this system. Future challenges lie in understanding the mechanism that regulates expression of each of the receptors and establishes the complex neural processing network that interprets the primary neuronal responses.
哺乳动物嗅觉系统的敏感性和特异性是解剖学、细胞和生化水平上多种因素共同作用的结果。最近对一个编码假定嗅觉受体的大基因家族的鉴定表明，遗传多样性可能在该系统中发挥重要作用。未来的挑战在于理解调节每个受体表达的机制，并建立起解释初级神经元反应的复杂神经处理网络。
