Cell
Volume 72, Issue 5, 12 March 1993, Pages 657-666
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Article
The family of genes encoding odorant receptors in the channel catfish

https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(93)90395-7Get rights and content

Abstract

The anatomical and numerical simplicity of the fish olfactory system has led us to examine the family of olfactory receptors expressed in the catfish. We have identified a family of genes encoding seven transmembrane domain receptors that share considerable homology with the odorant receptors of the rat. The size of the catfish receptor repertoire appears to be far smaller than in mammals. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences suggests that these receptor genes have undergone positive Darwinian selection to generate enhanced diversity within the putative odorant-binding domains. Individual receptor clones anneal with 0.5%–2% of the olfactory neurons, suggesting that a single cell expresses only a small subset of distinct odorant receptors. Each cell, therefore, possesses a unique identity defined by the receptors it expresses. These data suggest that the brain may discriminate among odors by determining which neurons have been activated.

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    Present address: Division of Neurobiology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.

    Present address: Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.

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