Olfactory Receptor 1B1 (OR1B1)

OR1B1 belongs to the G-protein coupled receptor 1 family. A stop codon at position Arg-192 in the gene coding for this protein is responsible for functional diversity thus producing a pseudogene. The stop codon is more frequent in non-Africans than in African-Americans. Olfactory receptors interact with odorant molecules in the nose, to initiate a neuronal response that triggers the perception of a smell. The olfactory receptor proteins are members of a large family of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) arising from single coding-exon genes. Olfactory receptors share a 7-transmembrane domain structure with many neurotransmitter and hormone receptors and are responsible for the recognition and G protein-mediated transduction of odorant signals. The olfactory receptor gene family is the largest in the genome.