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Specificity of odorant-binding proteins: a factor influencing the sensitivity of olfactory receptor-based biosensors

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Abstract

Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) primarily function in the transport of hydrophobic odorants. In this study, OBPs originating from rat and pig were cloned into a mammalian expression vector, pcDNA3, and expressed in HEK-293 cells, and their specificity for odorants and olfactory receptors was examined. Results suggest that OBPs have a high affinity for the olfactory receptors when both the OBP and receptor originate from the same species. The rat OBPs were bound not only to the rat olfactory receptor I7 but also to the odorant specific to I7. The solubility of the odorant was increased by both OBP2 and OBP3, which originate from rat, but with different efficiencies. These results demonstrate that OBPs specifically interact with odorants as well as olfactory receptors, and these interactions can influence the sensitivity of olfactory receptor-based biosensors.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korean government (MEST) (No. 2009-0080242). We thank Heinz Breer (Institute of Physiology, University Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany) for the OBP2 and OBP3 genes, Randall R. Reed (Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.) for the rho-tag gene, Akihito Yasuoka (Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution, Saitama, Japan) for the pVL-I7, and Cornelia I. Bargmann (Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA) for the odr-10 gene.

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  1. School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Kwanak-Gu Shilim-Dong San 56-1, Seoul, 151-744, Korea

    Hwi Jin Ko, Sang Hun Lee, Eun Hae Oh & Tai Hyun Park

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  1. Hwi Jin Ko
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  2. Sang Hun Lee
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Correspondence to Tai Hyun Park.

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Ko, H.J., Lee, S.H., Oh, E.H. et al. Specificity of odorant-binding proteins: a factor influencing the sensitivity of olfactory receptor-based biosensors. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 33, 55–62 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-009-0348-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-009-0348-3

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