Most natural odours activate multiple olfactory receptors, and odour perception results from the interpretation of these patterns of activation. The relative importance of each receptor gene for odour perception is unknown; however, a high degree of redundancy in olfactory encoding has been proposed. Here, the authors show that, in fact, one olfactory receptor, trace amine-associated receptor 4 (TAAR4), is essential for the detection of specific aversive odours in mice.
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