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Olfactory receptors are sensitive to molecular volume of odorants

Majid Saberi, Hamed Seyed-allaei
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/013516
Majid Saberi
School of Cognitive Science, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
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Hamed Seyed-allaei
School of Cognitive Science, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
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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.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted January 06, 2015.
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Olfactory receptors are sensitive to molecular volume of odorants
Majid Saberi, Hamed Seyed-allaei
bioRxiv 013516; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/013516
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Olfactory receptors are sensitive to molecular volume of odorants
Majid Saberi, Hamed Seyed-allaei
bioRxiv 013516; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/013516

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