SHIM , Tammy

Living organisms recognize the chemical circumstance through G-protein coupled odorant receptors (ORs), which consist of seven transmembranes (TMs) connected by three intracellular loops (ICLs) and three extracellular loops (ECLs). Although ECLs are the first gateway for chemicals to enter the orthosteric ligand binding site, their...

Mammals recognize chemicals in the air via G protein-coupled odorant receptors (ORs). In addition to their orthosteric binding site, other segments of these receptors modulate ligand recognition. Focusing on human hOR1A1, which is considered prototypical of class II ORs, we used a combination of molecular modeling, site-directed mutagenesis,...