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Our paper examining how genetic variation in olfactory receptors alters odor perception is now out in @PNASNews. I want to highlight a couple things that are cool, but not in the abstract.
pnas.org/content/early/…
@casey_trimmer @pollyp1 @AndreasKellerNY @MonellSc
pnas.org/content/early/…
@casey_trimmer @pollyp1 @AndreasKellerNY @MonellSc
First, only ~50/400 human receptors have a published ligand. Many have assumed this is because the receptor assays we use are missing a critical component.
Here, genetic variation suggests a specific receptor responds to diacetyl (buttered popcorn smell), but the receptor doesn’t work in our assay. Some tricks based on orthologous receptors from other primates back up the genetic variation results.
If you want to improve the receptor assay, look at this case: a receptor that should work, but doesn’t.
Second, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that although humans have 400 intact olfactory receptors, many of them aren’t playing a role in olfactory perception. Some aren’t expressed in the nose, others probably are intact but not functional.
If you are waiting for all 400 to work in the assays before looking at how receptors encode odors, it may never happen. Similarly, it may be a slightly simpler problem than we think if a large number of the receptors don't play a role in perception
