Tirindelli R, Mucignat-Caretta C, Ryba N J
Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Parma, Italy.
Trends Neurosci. 1998 Nov;21(11):482-6. doi: 10.1016/s0166-2236(98)01274-0.
Recently, two large multigene families of putative G-protein-linked receptors that are expressed in distinct subpopulations of neurones in the vomeronasal organ have been identified. These receptors probably mediate pheromone detection. The most surprising aspects of these findings are that there are so many receptors of two very different classes and that the receptors are unrelated to their counterparts in the main olfactory epithelium. This suggests that many active ligands are likely to exert effects through the vomeronasal organ. Parallel experiments addressing the nature of these ligands indicate a role for some proteins, as well as small molecules, as functional mammalian pheromones. In combination, these results begin to suggest a molecular basis for mammalian pheromone signalling.
最近，在犁鼻器中不同神经元亚群中表达的两个假定的G蛋白偶联受体的大型多基因家族已被鉴定出来。这些受体可能介导信息素的检测。这些发现最令人惊讶的方面是存在两种非常不同类型的众多受体，并且这些受体与主要嗅觉上皮中的对应物无关。这表明许多活性配体可能通过犁鼻器发挥作用。针对这些配体性质的平行实验表明，一些蛋白质以及小分子作为功能性哺乳动物信息素发挥作用。综合起来，这些结果开始暗示哺乳动物信息素信号传导的分子基础。
