Rodriguez Ivan
Department of Zoology and Animal Biology, and NCCR Frontiers in Genetics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2007 Oct;17(5):465-70. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2007.07.005. Epub 2007 Aug 20.
The largest mammalian gene family codes for odorant receptors and is exclusively devoted to the perception of the outside world. Its expression is very peculiar, since olfactory sensory neurons are only allowed to express a single of its numerous members, from a single parental allele. How this is achieved is unknown, but recent work points to multiple regulatory mechanisms, possibly shared by pheromone receptor genes, acting at (a) a general level, via the expression of the chemoreceptor itself and (b) a more restricted level, defined by activator elements.
最大的哺乳动物基因家族编码嗅觉受体，专门负责对外界的感知。其表达非常独特，因为嗅觉感觉神经元仅被允许从单个亲本等位基因中表达其众多成员中的一个。其实现方式尚不清楚，但最近的研究指出了多种调控机制，可能与信息素受体基因共享，这些机制在（a）一般水平上，通过化学感受器自身的表达起作用，以及（b）更受限的水平上，由激活元件定义。
