嗅觉受体是一种表达在嗅上皮嗅觉受体神经元上的G蛋白偶联受体,可以选择性地与气味分子相结合激活细胞内信号转导通路,使嗅觉受体神经元产生动作电位,在气味识别过程中起重要作用.为了研究嗅觉受体蛋白与气味分子间的相互作用,本研究构建了线虫嗅觉受体ODR-10真核表达载体并将其异源表达于人胚胎肾细胞HEK-293中,通过细胞免疫荧光和Westernblot方法对表达效果进行了鉴定.利用细胞内钙离子浓度分析的方法检测表达有嗅觉受体ODR-10的细胞对其天然配体丁二酮的响应,结果证明异源表达的受体依然具有气味识别的功能.将嗅觉受体ODR-10作为传感器的敏感元件固定于石英晶体微天平传感器上,构成质量敏感型气体传感器,该传感器可以检测丁二酮气体,具有很高的灵敏度和特异性,在一定浓度范围内具有线性响应特性.所有结果表明,在异源细胞系统中表达的ODR-10受体蛋白仍具有特异性识别其天然配体的功能,适合作为敏感元件应用于仿生嗅觉受体传感器的构建.
ODR-10, an olfactory receptor protein of C. elegans, was used as a model of olfactory receptors expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293 cells as a fusing protein with 6xhis-tag and rho-tag. The expression of the target protein was analyzed by RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction), Western blot and immunocytochemistry methods. The specific binding to odorant molecules of the olfactory receptor was measured using intracellular Ca2+ assays. Then the olfactory receptor ODR-10 was immobilized onto the surface of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor to fabricate the olfactory receptor-based gas biosensor. The results demonstrated that this biosensor can detect the natural ligand of ODR-10 (diacetyl) with high sensitivity and specificity. All these results indicated that the olfactory receptor ODR-10 has been expressed successfully in the heterologous cell system and it can be used as the sensitive material in the development of biomimetic olfactory receptor-based biosensors.