Background of the antigen
Olfactory receptors interact with odorant molecules in the nose to initiate a neuronal response that leads to the perception of smell. While they share a seven transmembrane domain structure with many neurotransmitter and hormone receptors, olfactory receptors are responsible for the recognition and transduction of odorant signals. The olfactory receptor gene family is the largest in the genome. Both OR2A4 (olfactory receptor 2A4) and OR2A7 (olfactory receptor 2A7) are 310 amino acid multi-pass membrane proteins that belong to the G-protein coupled receptor 1 family. The gene that encodes OR2A4 maps to human chromosome 6q23, while the gene that encodes OR2A7 maps to human chromosome 7q35.
