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Olfaction

Noses within noses

Nature volume 459, pages 521–522 (2009)Cite this article

The mammalian olfactory system does more than just detect food odours and pheromones. The discovery of a novel class of olfactory receptor provides evidence that mammals can also sniff out cell damage and disease.

The mammalian olfactory system recognizes diverse chemical stimuli conveying information about such things as food quality, the genetic identity or sexual status of potential mates, and even stress1,2. An exciting paper by Rivière et al.3 (page 574 of this issue) describes the identification of a previously unrecognized type of chemosensory neuron in the rodent nose that responds to stimuli associated with cell damage, disease and inflammation. These results should help us to understand how animals identify pathogens or assess the health status of potential partners.

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Figure 1: Vomeronasal receptors discovered by Rivière and colleagues3.

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  1. Steven D. Munger is in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA. smung001@umaryland.edu,

    Steven D. Munger

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Munger, S. Noses within noses. Nature 459, 521–522 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459521a

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