Better smelling through genetics: mammalian odor perception

Abstract

The increasing availability of genomic and genetic tools to study olfaction-the sense of smell-has brought important new insights into how this chemosensory modality functions in different species. Newly sequenced mammalian genomes-from platypus to dog-have made it possible to infer how smell has evolved to suit the needs of a given species and how variation within a species may affect individual olfactory perception. This review will focus on recent advances in the genetics and genomics of mammalian smell, with a primary focus on rodents and humans.

Figure 1

Schematic of the rodent olfactory system, indicating all four olfactory sensory organs, the classes of chemosensory receptor they express, and a summary of gene expression in each. Neurons in the VNO that express ORs project to the very rostral tip of the AOB (not indicated on the figure).