Open AccessEvidence for a shape-based recognition of odorants in vivo in the human nose from an analysis of the molecular mechanism of lily-of-the-valley odorants detection in the Lilial and Bourgeonal family using the C/Si/Ge/Sn switch strategy
Author(s) -
Steffen Wolf,
Lian Gelis,
Steffen Dörrich,
Hanns Hatt,
Philip Kraft
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0182147
Subject(s) - odor , olfactory receptor , detection threshold , in vivo , chemistry , van der waals surface , biophysics , electronic nose , van der waals force , ligand (biochemistry) , molecule , biology , receptor , nanotechnology , materials science , biochemistry , computer science , genetics , van der waals radius , organic chemistry , real time computing
We performed an analysis of possible mechanisms of ligand recognition in the human nose. The analysis is based on in vivo odor threshold determination and in vitro Ca 2+ imaging assays with a C/Si/Ge/Sn switch strategy applied to the compounds Lilial and Bourgeonal, to differentiate between different molecular mechanisms of odorant detection. Our results suggest that odorant detection under threshold conditions is mainly based on the molecular shape, i.e. the van der Waals surface, and electrostatics of the odorants. Furthermore, we show that a single olfactory receptor type is responsible for odor detection of Bourgeonal at the threshold level in humans in vivo . Carrying out a QM analysis of vibrational energies contained in the odorants, there is no evidence for a vibration-based recognition.