Olfactory signaling via trace amine-associated receptors
- PDF / 1,646,024 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 98 Downloads / 209 Views
REVIEW
Olfactory signaling via trace amine-associated receptors Adam Dewan 1 Received: 24 July 2020 / Accepted: 28 October 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs) are a family of G protein-coupled receptors that function as odorant receptors in the main olfactory system of vertebrates. TAARs are monoallelically expressed in primary sensory neurons where they couple to the same transduction cascade as canonical olfactory receptors and are mapped onto glomeruli within a specific region of the olfactory bulb. TAARs have a high affinity for volatile amines, a class of chemicals that are generated during the decomposition of proteins and are ubiquitous physiological metabolites that are found in body fluids. Thus, amines are proposed to play an important role in intra- and interspecific communication such as signaling the sex of the conspecific, the quality of the food source, or even the proximity of a predator. TAARs have a crucial role in the perception of these behaviorally relevant compounds as the genetic deletion of all or even individual olfactory TAARs can alter the behavioral response and reduce the sensitivity to amines. The small size of this receptor family combined with the ethological relevance of their ligands makes the TAARs an attractive model system for probing olfactory perception. This review will summarize the current knowledge on the olfactory TAARs and discuss whether they represent a unique subsystem within the main olfactory system. Keywords Olfaction . G protein-coupled receptor (GCPR) . Olfactory receptor . Perception . Volatile amines
Introduction Trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs) are a distinct subfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Originally discovered in 2001 by two separate groups (Borowsky et al. 2001; Bunzow et al. 2001), these receptors were initially termed “trace amine receptors” as two TAAR members (TA1/TAAR1 and TA2/TAAR4) recognized several endogenous amine compounds termed trace amines (Borowsky et al. 2001; Bunzow et al. 2001; Lindemann and Hoener 2005). Trace amines are structurally similar to biogenic amines (e.g., serotonin, noradrenaline, adrenaline, dopamine, and histamine) but are maintained at lower endogenous tissue concentrations and thus were given the moniker “trace” (Lindemann and Hoener 2005; Gainetdinov et al. 2018). Further work determined that mammalian Taar genes form a single cluster in the genome and that not all members of this family respond to trace amines, so a new nomenclature was proposed, adding “-associated” to their family name (TAARs) * Adam Dewan [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 W. Call St, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
to account for this variation in ligand binding (Lindemann and Hoener 2005). The identification of this family of receptors generated significant interest as one member (TAAR1) exhibited a high affinity for several psychotropic agents and was expressed in the brain (Borowsky et al. 2001). The f
Data Loading...
