Olender Tsviya, Lancet Doron, Nebert Daniel W
The Crown Human Genome Center, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Hum Genomics. 2008 Sep;3(1):87-97. doi: 10.1186/1479-7364-3-1-87.
The olfactory receptor gene (OR) superfamily is the largest in the human genome. The superfamily contains 390 putatively functional genes and 465 pseudogenes arranged into 18 gene families and 300 subfamilies. Even members within the same subfamily are often located on different chromosomes. OR genes are located on all autosomes except chromosome 20, plus the X chromosome but not the Y chromosome. The gene:pseudogene ratio is lowest in human, higher in chimpanzee and highest in rat and mouse--most likely reflecting the greater need of olfaction for survival in the rodent than in the human. The OR genes undergo allelic exclusion, each sensory neurone expressing usually only one odourant receptor allele; the mechanism by which this phenomenon is regulated is not yet understood. The nomenclature system (based on evolutionary divergence of genes into families and subfamilies of the OR gene superfamily) has been designed similarly to that originally used for the CYP gene superfamily.
嗅觉受体基因（OR）超家族是人类基因组中最大的超家族。该超家族包含390个推定的功能基因和465个假基因，排列成18个基因家族和300个亚家族。即使是同一亚家族内的成员也常常位于不同的染色体上。OR基因位于除20号染色体外的所有常染色体上，加上X染色体，但不包括Y染色体。基因与假基因的比例在人类中最低，在黑猩猩中较高，在大鼠和小鼠中最高——这很可能反映出嗅觉对啮齿动物生存的需求比对人类更大。OR基因经历等位基因排斥，每个感觉神经元通常只表达一个气味受体等位基因；这种现象的调控机制尚不清楚。命名系统（基于基因进化分化为OR基因超家族的家族和亚家族）的设计与最初用于CYP基因超家族的命名系统类似。
