We developed new methodologies and procedures that allowed us to investigate the specificity of odour recognition
between odorant binding proteins and receptors in Anopheles gambiae mosquito.
Important advances have included the discovery of the first evidence that the odour response is governed by neurons, of the intracellular signalling pathways
between odorant receptors and sensory neurons, and of specific neurons, receptors and neurotransmitters involved in behaviour adaption following experience.
Despite these miniscule variations, the flies showed a consistent preference for one arm of the maze over the other, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggesting that the flies could tell the difference
between the odorants.
Not exact matches
A study published in 2004 in Nature Neuroscience, for example, found that people could not discriminate
between two such
odorants.
The researchers imagined that the
odorant fits into a spot
between a site that donates an electron and one that receives the electron.
Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, but the optimum method would be to be able to quantify the connection
between the smell that the human nose experiences and the actual, measured amount of specific
odorants in the air.
In addition, each foodstuff has its own odor code comprised of a core group of
between just 3 and 40 of the 230 key
odorants — in specific concentrations.
«A combination of
between just few key
odorants creates an authentic perception of odors.
The study «A long - range cis - regulatory element for class I
odorant receptor genes» published in Nature Communications was a collaborative effort
between Tokyo Tech, the University of Tokyo, Nihon BioData Corporation and RIKEN Brain Science Institute.
The correlation
between the eNose pleasantness prediction values of 22
odorant mixtures (essential oils) and the values obtained from native Ethiopians.
C. elegans has the ability to distinguish
between hundreds of different odors due to a range of molecules —
odorant receptors — on the surface of a cluster of neurons at the tip of its head.
By genetic manipulation, Bargmann and her team swapped the receptors for two different
odorants between two neurons, and produced opposite effects to those that normally occur — a receptor for an attractive odor, now on a neuron that usually responded to noxious odors, caused worms to move away from the attractive odor source.
A convenient way to address it is to test for odor character differences
between deuterated and undeuterated
odorant isotopomers, since these have identical ground - state conformations but different vibrational modes.