{
  "abstract": "The mechanism governing singular odorant receptor (OR) gene choice restricts each olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) to expressing a single OR allele from a repertoire of more than 1,100 receptor genes. Consequently, only a small fraction of OSNs express any given OR, limiting studies of OR function, axonal wiring, and odor coding. Here, we show that multimerizing a 21-bp homeodomain enhancer dramatically increases the probability of receptor choice. We engineered a single-copy Olfr151 minigene carrying a 9x21 enhancer and the human odorant receptor OR10G4, integrated at a genomic site distant from all endogenous OR clusters. This transgene drives singular OR10G4 expression in approximately 75% of OSNs and is accompanied by widespread reductions in endogenous Class I, Class II, and TAAR receptor transcripts and proteins, indicating that cis-regulatory elements govern the probability of OR selection. The abundance of OR10G4-expressing cilia enabled highly sensitive ligand screening using CELIA (Cilia-based Evaluation of Ligands and receptor InterActions). Profiling guaiacol derivatives revealed a strong correspondence among receptor activation, cAMP production, and published human psychophysical responses. Although OR10G4 responds to guaiacol-related odorants, multiple canonical vanilla odorants failed to activate the receptor, arguing against a primary role in vanilla perception. Instead, the lowest EC50 ligands were enriched for compounds human subjects described as smoky. Together, these findings link activation of a single human odorant receptor to a defined perceptual odor-quality dimension and establish a general strategy for decoding the molecular basis of human odor perception.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Hunter College, CUNY"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "E. Lempert"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Omura"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Mina"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "P. Feinstein"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5n1qxrvh7vr6p.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.23.753647",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753647v1.full",
  "id": "5n1qxrvh7vr6p",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753647v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2809|Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214769059",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753647v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-23",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5n1qxrvh7vr6p.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:11Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.23.753647",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753647v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Functional Profiling of a Human Odorant Receptor Using Olfactory Cilia Links its Activation to Odor Quality",
  "title_text": "Functional Profiling of a Human Odorant Receptor Using Olfactory Cilia Links its Activation to Odor Quality",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5n1qxrvh7vr6p",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}