A spectroscopic mechanism for primary olfactory reception
A spectroscopic mechanism for primary olfactory reception
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DOI：
10.1093/chemse/21.6.773
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发表时间：
1996-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Turin, L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Turin, L
描述了一种新的初级嗅觉接收理论。它提出嗅觉感受器不是对分子的形状做出反应，而是对它们的振动做出反应。它与以前的振动理论（Dyson, Wright）的不同之处在于，它为分子振动的生物转导提供了一种详细而合理的机制：非弹性电子隧穿。隧道光谱的元素在假定的嗅觉受体及其相关的c蛋白中被鉴定。介绍了气味分子电子隧穿谱的计算方法。给出了结构不相关分子中隧穿光谱与气味之间关系的几个例子。正如预测的那样，形状非常相似但振动不同的分子闻起来也不同。最引人注目的例子是纯苯乙酮及其完全氘化的类似物苯乙酮-d(8)，它们的气味不同，尽管结构相同。这一事实似乎无法用基于结构的气味理论来解释。这里提出的证据表明，嗅觉，就像色觉和听觉一样，是一种光谱感觉。
A novel theory of primary olfactory reception is described. It proposes that olfactory receptors respond not to the shape of the molecules but to their vibrations. It differs from previous vibrational theories (Dyson, Wright) in providing a detailed and plausible mechanism for biological transduction of molecular vibrations: inelastic electron tunnelling. Elements of the tunnelling spectroscope are identified in putative olfactory receptors and their associated C-protein. Means of calculating electron tunnelling spectra of odorant molecules are described. Several examples are given of correlations between tunnelling spectrum and odour in structurally unrelated molecules. As predicted, molecules of very similar shape but differing in vibrations smell different. The most striking instance is that of pure acetophenone and its fully deuterated analogue acetophenone-d(8), which smell different despite being identical in structure. This fact cannot, it seems, be explained by structure-based theories of odour. The evidence presented here suggests instead that olfaction, like colour vision and hearing, is a spectral sense.