Olfactory receptors are sensitive to molecular volume of odorants

Abstract

To study olfaction, first we should know which physical or chemical properties of odorant molecules determine the response of olfactory receptor neurons, and then we should study the effect of those properties on the combinatorial encoding in olfactory system.In this work we show that the response of an olfactory receptor neuron in Drosophila depends on molecular volume of an odorant; The molecular volume determines the upper limits of the neural response, while the actual neural response may depend on other properties of the molecules. Each olfactory receptor prefers a particular volume, with some degree of flexibility. These two parameters predict the volume and flexibility of the binding-pocket of the olfactory receptors, which are the targets of structural biology studies.At the end we argue that the molecular volume can affects the quality of perceived smell of an odorant via the combinatorial encoding, molecular volume may mask other underlying relations between properties of molecules and neural responses and we suggest a way to improve the selection of odorants in further experimental studies.

DoOR 2.0 - Comprehensive Mapping of Drosophila melanogaster Odorant Responses

“…DoOR has been used by the community as a basis for further analysis both in physiology and in modeling 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 . The DoOR web page ( http://neuro.uni.kn/DoOR ) has become an established source of information for the community: there were ~140 unique web sessions per month from ~50 countries in 2014.…”