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Odorant receptor genes in humans.

¹The Rockefeller University 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York, 10021, USA. pm@rockvax.rockefeller.edu

Current Opinion in Genetics & Development

|June 23, 1999

Summary

Human olfactory performance is surprisingly low compared to other species. This is because the human olfactory receptor gene repertoire contains many non-functional pseudogenes, unlike other vertebrates.

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Area of Science:

Olfactory neuroscience
Genomics
Comparative biology

Background:

The sense of smell (olfaction) is crucial for survival and social behaviors in many vertebrate species.
Olfactory perception relies on odorant receptors (ORs) expressed by olfactory sensory neurons.
The OR gene family is the largest in the vertebrate genome, with rodents possessing up to 1000 OR genes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the reasons behind the comparatively lower olfactory performance in Homo sapiens.
To analyze the human olfactory receptor gene repertoire and compare it with other vertebrates.

Main Methods:

Comparative genomics analysis of olfactory receptor gene families across different vertebrate species.
Identification and quantification of functional and pseudogenized olfactory receptor genes in the human genome.

Main Results:

The human olfactory receptor gene repertoire is significantly depleted compared to other vertebrates.
A substantial proportion of human olfactory receptor genes are non-functional pseudogenes.
This contrasts with the largely intact and expanded OR repertoires observed in other vertebrate species.

Conclusions:

The high number of pseudogenes in the human olfactory receptor gene repertoire is a primary reason for diminished olfactory capabilities.
Evolutionary pressures and genomic changes have led to a reduction in functional olfactory receptor genes in humans.
Understanding these genetic differences provides insight into the evolution of sensory systems.

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