Chemicals emanating from external sources or ingested material provide critical information about many aspects of an animal’s environment, including dangers, food sources, food quality and palatability, potential mates, the behavior of conspecifics, and more. Detection is mediated by a diverse array of receptor protein types that evolved to meet the unique challenges posed by the vast, diverse, discontinuous, and sometimes toxic universe of chemicals. Investigating the expression, function, and pharmacology of these receptors is fundamental for increasing our understanding of chemosensation (smell, taste, and chemesthesis). In addition, these receptors are current and future targets of opportunity for manipulating behaviors that range from pest host-seeking to the economic and consumptive activity of humans. To bring knowledge about these receptors into focus and foster work that extends this knowledge, Chemical Senses organized this special issue.
This special issue includes both reviews and new original work focusing on the proteins that transduce chemical signals or physical signals from the sources of chemical signals, or directly impact access of these chemicals to their receptors. The articles discuss invertebrate and vertebrate model systems. They range across a breadth of methods of inquiry, from new computational approaches to physiology, biochemistry, and psychophysics. By bringing together the current state of knowledge of chemosensory receptors, this special issue facilitates not only education and understanding but also the innovation and creativity needed to make further advances.
The maturation of chemosensation as a field of knowledge is reaching a point where it is increasingly possible to create interventions. This is especially true of chemosensory receptors. Rational approaches targeting receptor function to produce desired modifications of perception have begun to appear. We should expect this type of strategy to become more common and effective. Interventions may range from the elimination of certain percepts, or even components of a percept (e.g. undesirable “off-notes” of a flavor), to the enhancement of others (e.g. desired aromas or flavor profiles). This special issue marks the point in the history of chemosensory research where investigators using these approaches have begun to have a significant impact.