The human nose is often considered something of a luxury, but in the rest of the animal
world, from bacteria to mammals, detecting chemicals in the environment has been critical to …

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent one of the largest gene families in the
animal genome. These receptors can be classified into several groups based on the …

The sense of taste provides animals with valuable information about the nature and quality
of food. Mammals can recognize and respond to a diverse repertoire of chemical entities …

Fruit flies are attracted by a diversity of odors that signal the presence of food, potential
mates, or attractive egg-laying sites. Most Drosophila olfactory neurons express two types of …

Ca2+ is well established as an intracellular second messenger. However, the molecular
identification of a detector for extracellular Ca2+—the extracellular calcium-sensing receptor …

Several developments during the past 15 years have profoundly affected our understanding
of the vomeronasal system (VNS) of vertebrates. In the mid 1990s, the vomeronasal …

The “receiver operating characteristic”(ROC) curve method is a well-recognized metric used
as an objective way to evaluate the ability of a given test to discriminate between two …

The mammalian vomeronasal organ detects social information about gender, status, and
individuality. The molecular cues carrying this information remain largely unknown. Here, we …

Drosophila taste compounds with gustatory neurons on many parts of the body, suggesting
that a fly detects both the location and quality of a food source. For example, activation of …

Linda B. Buck* Howard Hughes Medical Institute Neurobiology Department Harvard Medical
School exposure of a female to a male that is genetically different from the inseminating …