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Published December 2012 | public
Journal Article

How broadly tuned olfactory receptors equally recognize their agonists. Human OR1G1 as a test case

Abstract

The molecular features that dominate the binding mode of agonists by a broadly tuned olfactory receptor are analyzed through a joint approach combining cell biology, calcium imaging, and molecular modeling. The odorant/receptor affinities, estimated through statistics accrued during molecular dynamics simulations, are in accordance with the experimental ranking. Although in many systems receptors recognize their target through a network of oriented interactions, such as H-bonding, the binding by broadly tuned olfactory receptors is dominated by non-polar terms. We show how such a feature allows chemicals belonging to different chemical families to similarly activate the receptors through compensations of interactions within the binding site.

Additional Information

© 2012 Springer Basel AG. Received: 1 March 2012; Revised: 25 July 2012; Accepted: 30 July 2012; Published online: 29 August 2012. The CINES provided computer time. JG acknowledges the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis for funding the project Olfactome. Dr. Steffen Wolf and Pr. Klaus Gerwert are acknowledged for sending the structure of hOR2AG1. Dr. Ravinder Abrol helped in GPCR ab initio modeling.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023