Specialized odour receptors

摘要

Olfaction is vital to most animals but relies on thousands of receptor genes, the individual deletion of which generally leads to little if any detectable defect in behaviour. Thomas Bozza and colleagues show that deletion of a single trace amine-associated receptor (TAAR4) in mice abolishes aversion to low concentrations of volatile amines and to the odour of predator (puma) urine.