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Nature 452, 944 (24 April 2008) | doi:10.1038/452944a; Published online 23 April 2008
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Professor / Associate Professor (Pharmaceutics / Pharmaceutical Analysis&quality Control)
- Alliance Institute of Advanced Pharmacy and Health Sciences
- Hyderabad 500038 India
Assistant or Associate Professor, Section of Anatomic Pathology
- The Medical College of Georgia
- Augusta, Georgia, USA
Neuroscience: Current views on odour receptors
Alexander Chesler1 & Stuart Firestein1
Abstract
Insects possess refined olfactory systems that use specific receptors on their antennae. It emerges that these receptors not only detect odour molecules but, unexpectedly, can also act as ion channels.
All creatures sample their environment for chemicals that indicate the presence of food, mates, predators, dangers and attractions through mechanisms that were thought to be evolutionarily conserved from nematode worms to mammals. For example, in many organisms, odorant molecules bind to their receptors on the surface of neurons, initiating an intracellular signalling cascade.
- Alexander Chesler and Stuart Firestein are in the Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, 923 Fairchild Center, MC 2438, New York, New York 10027, USA. Alexander Chesler is at present in the Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco.
Email: sjf24@columbia.edu
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