Identification of Olfactory Receptor Genes from Mammalian Genome Sequences
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Olfaction is essential for the survival of mammals. Diverse odorant molecules in the environment are detected by olfactory
receptors (ORs) expressed in the olfactory epithelium of the nasal cavity. In general, mammalian genomes harbor ∼1,000 OR
genes, which form the largest multigene family in mammals. The recent advances in genome sequencing technology have enabled
us to computationally identify nearly complete repertoires of OR genes from various organisms. Such studies have revealed
that the numbers of OR genes are highly variable among organisms depending on their living environments.
Because OR genes are intronless, it is possible to find all OR genes by conducting homology searches against the genome sequences
using known OR genes as queries. However, some caution is necessary during the process of extracting intact coding sequences
of OR genes and distinguishing among OR and non-OR genes. Presented here is a description of bioinformatics methods to identify
the entire OR gene repertoires from mammalian genome sequences.
