Abstract
Mammals deploy a large array of odorant receptors (ORs) to detect and distinguish a vast number of odorant molecules. ORs vary widely in the type of odorant structures recognized and in the breadth of molecular receptive range (MRR), with some ORs recognizing a small group of closely related molecules and other ORs recognizing a wide range of structures. While closely related ORs have been shown to have similar MRRs, the functional relationships among less closely related ORs are unclear. We screened a small group of ORs with a diverse odorant panel to identify a new odorant-OR pairing (unsaturated aldehydes and MOR263-3). We then extensively screened MOR263-3 and a series of additional MORs related to MOR263-3 in various ways. MORs related by phylogenetic analysis (several other members of the MOR263 subfamily) had MRRs that overlapped with the MRR of MOR263-3, even with amino acid identity as low as 48% (MOR263-2). MOR171-17, predicted to be functionally related to MOR263-3 by an alternative bioinformatic analysis, but with only 39% amino acid identity, had a distinct odorant specificity. Our results support the use of phylogenetic analysis to predict functional relationships among ORs with relatively low amino acid identity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 47-55 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Neurochemistry |
Volume | 134 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jul 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 International Society for Neurochemistry.
Funding
Funders | Funder number |
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Israel Science Foundation | 51/11 |
National Institutes of Health | RO1 DC008119 |
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders | R01DC008119 |
Keywords
- Xenopus oocytes
- electrophysiology
- heterologous expression
- ligand specificity
- molecular receptive range
- olfactory receptors