Neuron
Volume 45, Issue 5, 3 March 2005, Pages 661-666
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Coexpression of Two Functional Odor Receptors in One Neuron

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Summary

One of the most fundamental tenets in the field of olfaction is that each olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) expresses a single odorant receptor. However, the one receptor-one neuron principle is difficult to establish rigorously. Here we construct a receptor-to-neuron map for an entire olfactory organ in Drosophila and find that two receptor genes are coexpressed in one class of ORN. Both receptors are functional in an in vivo expression system, they are only 16% identical in amino acid sequence, and the genes that encode them are unlinked. Most importantly, their coexpression has been conserved for >45 million years. Expression of multiple odor receptors in a cell provides an additional degree of freedom for odor coding.

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1

Present address: Program in Developmental Biology, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X8, Canada.

2

Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Monash University, P.O. Box 18, Wellington Road, Clayton VIC 3800, Melbourne, Australia.

3

Present address: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.

4

These authors contributed equally to this work.