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. 1989 Jul;86(14):5641–5645. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.14.5641

Adenylate cyclase mediates olfactory transduction for a wide variety of odorants.

G Lowe 1, T Nakamura 1, G H Gold 1
PMCID: PMC297680  PMID: 2787513

Abstract

An odor-stimulated adenylate cyclase [ATP pyrophosphate-lyase (cyclizing), EC 4.6.1.1] is thought to mediate olfactory transduction in vertebrates. However, it is not known whether the adenylate cyclase serves this function for all odorants or for only certain classes of odorants. To investigate this question, we have compared the abilities of 35 odorants to stimulate the adenylate cyclase and to elicit an electrophysiological response. We report a strong positive correlation between the magnitude of adenylate cyclase stimulation and the summated electrical response of the olfactory epithelium (electro-olfactogram) evoked by individual odorants. We also show that the adenylate cyclase stimulator forskolin equally attenuates the electro-olfactogram response for all odorants tested. These data provide evidence that the adenylate cyclase mediates transduction for a wide variety of odorants.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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