Olfactory receptors interact with odorant molecules in the nose, to initiate a neuronal response that triggers the perception of a smell. The olfactory receptor proteins are members of a large family of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) arising from single coding-exon genes. Olfactory receptors share a 7-transmembrane domain structure with many neurotransmitter and hormone receptors and are responsible for the recognition and G protein-mediated transduction of odorant signals. The olfactory receptor gene family is the largest in the genome. The nomenclature assigned to the olfactory receptor genes and proteins for this organism is independent of other organisms.[3]
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↑Rouquier S, Taviaux S, Trask BJ, Brand-Arpon V, van den Engh G, Demaille J, Giorgi D (Mar 1998). "Distribution of olfactory receptor genes in the human genome". Nat Genet. 18 (3): 243–50. doi:10.1038/ng0398-243. PMID9500546.
Gilad Y, Lancet D (2003). "Population differences in the human functional olfactory repertoire". Mol. Biol. Evol. 20 (3): 307–14. doi:10.1093/molbev/msg013. PMID12644552.
Fuchs T, Malecova B, Linhart C, Sharan R, Khen M, Herwig R, Shmulevich D, Elkon R, Steinfath M, O'Brien JK, Radelof U, Lehrach H, Lancet D, Shamir R (2003). "DEFOG: a practical scheme for deciphering families of genes". Genomics. 80 (3): 295–302. doi:10.1006/geno.2002.6830. PMID12213199.
Glusman G, Sosinsky A, Ben-Asher E, Avidan N, Sonkin D, Bahar A, Rosenthal A, Clifton S, Roe B, Ferraz C, Demaille J, Lancet D (2000). "Sequence, structure, and evolution of a complete human olfactory receptor gene cluster". Genomics. 63 (2): 227–45. doi:10.1006/geno.1999.6030. PMID10673334.
