First contact to odors: Our current knowledge about odorant receptors

Abstract

Chemical senses - especially smell - are known to be important for the fundamental life events such as sensing predators, selecting mates, as well as finding food. The chemical senses are decoded in the olfactory system which is able to detect and differentiate thousands of odorous substances comprised of chemically divergent structures (i.e. odorants). The high selectivity of the olfactory system is heavily dependent on the receptors for each odorants (i.e. odorant receptors). Thus, studying odorant receptors may not only facilitate our understanding the initial events of olfaction but provide crucial knowledge for developing a novel, odorant receptor-based biosensor for chemical screening. Here we provide a review of recent advances in our understanding of odorant receptors. © 2008 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International.