Buck L, Axel R
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032.
Cell. 1991 Apr 5;65(1):175-87. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90418-x.
The mammalian olfactory system can recognize and discriminate a large number of different odorant molecules. The detection of chemically distinct odorants presumably results from the association of odorous ligands with specific receptors on olfactory sensory neurons. To address the problem of olfactory perception at a molecular level, we have cloned and characterized 18 different members of an extremely large multigene family that encodes seven transmembrane domain proteins whose expression is restricted to the olfactory epithelium. The members of this novel gene family are likely to encode a diverse family of odorant receptors.
哺乳动物的嗅觉系统能够识别和区分大量不同的气味分子。对化学性质不同的气味的检测大概是由于有气味的配体与嗅觉感觉神经元上的特定受体相结合所致。为了在分子水平上解决嗅觉感知问题，我们克隆并鉴定了一个极大的多基因家族中的18个不同成员，该家族编码七个跨膜结构域蛋白，其表达仅限于嗅觉上皮。这个新基因家族的成员可能编码一个多样的气味受体家族。
