Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila
We would like to thank Dr. Hettinger (1) for his positive comment on our results showing that flies can discriminate isotopes by smell and are capable of cross-learning between odorants sharing a molecular vibration. Our article (2) demonstrated the presence of a physical (vibrational) component to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70054 |
| _version_ | 1826191161893584896 |
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| author | Franco, Maria Isabel Turin, Luca Mershin, Andreas Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Biomedical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Biomedical Engineering Franco, Maria Isabel Turin, Luca Mershin, Andreas Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C. |
| author_sort | Franco, Maria Isabel |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We would like to thank Dr. Hettinger (1) for his positive comment on our results showing that flies can discriminate isotopes by smell and are capable of cross-learning between odorants sharing a molecular vibration. Our article (2) demonstrated the presence of a physical (vibrational) component to odor character necessitating a vibration-sensing mechanism, the nature of which was not addressed experimentally and remains to be elucidated. We suggest that it likely involves inelastic electron tunneling, because this is consistent with our experimental data and with Brookes et al. (3), who have shown that an inelastic tunneling mechanism in olfaction is physically plausible. As pointed out by Luca Turin, this odorant detection mechanism does not require generation of free electrons by NADPH (4) and offers a potential explanation to why most enantiomer pairs smell identical. Further, Takane and Mitchell (5) have found IR spectra to be good predictors of odor character. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:51:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/70054 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:51:15Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/700542022-09-26T08:47:08Z Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila Franco, Maria Isabel Turin, Luca Mershin, Andreas Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Biomedical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory Mershin, Andreas Mershin, Andreas We would like to thank Dr. Hettinger (1) for his positive comment on our results showing that flies can discriminate isotopes by smell and are capable of cross-learning between odorants sharing a molecular vibration. Our article (2) demonstrated the presence of a physical (vibrational) component to odor character necessitating a vibration-sensing mechanism, the nature of which was not addressed experimentally and remains to be elucidated. We suggest that it likely involves inelastic electron tunneling, because this is consistent with our experimental data and with Brookes et al. (3), who have shown that an inelastic tunneling mechanism in olfaction is physically plausible. As pointed out by Luca Turin, this odorant detection mechanism does not require generation of free electrons by NADPH (4) and offers a potential explanation to why most enantiomer pairs smell identical. Further, Takane and Mitchell (5) have found IR spectra to be good predictors of odor character. 2012-04-18T20:08:58Z 2012-04-18T20:08:58Z 2011-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1091-6490 0027-8424 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70054 Franco, M. I. et al. “Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction Is a Physical and a Chemical Sense in Drosophila.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.31 (2011): E350–E350. Web. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1107618108 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) PNAS |
| spellingShingle | Franco, Maria Isabel Turin, Luca Mershin, Andreas Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C. Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila |
| title | Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila |
| title_full | Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila |
| title_fullStr | Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila |
| title_short | Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila |
| title_sort | reply to hettinger olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in drosophila |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70054 |
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