Amino acid polymorphisms between alleles of a more broadly tuned Or could account for subtle changes in olfactory neuron response.
Although more subtle differences in olfactory sensitivity and/or discrimination cannot be ruled out, this is beyond the scope of the present work.
In addition, mutations in many candidate genes have been induced in a common isogenic background and can hence be tested for subtle effects on olfactory behavior.
However, because we were interested in a high degree of sensitivity in order to detect even subtle changes in olfactory functioning, we decided on a relatively strict criterion of success.
The results show that subtle structural changes of olfactory signals can significantly change their interactions with olfactory receptor neurons, and either shift their potency, or change their activity from repellence to attraction.
Although STOP null mice do not present major brain anomalies, they show subtle modifications of the olfactory system maturation [13].
Given the large number of tests for association performed and the subtle effects of naturally occurring variants on olfactory behavior, none of the polymorphisms were significant using a strict Bonferroni-corrected significance threshold.
My olfactory sensibilities pick up on layered nuances, subtle shifts and alluring aromatic banquets.
Participants also underwent a neuropsychological battery consisting of 34 tests capable of detecting subtle deficits in cognition, motor function, affective state, and olfactory function.
The nature of the genes within the network suggests that polymorphisms that contribute to natural variation in olfactory behavior may do so by causing subtle variations in neural connectivity in the olfactory projection, similar to results from previous GWA studies in the DGRP that focused on single odorants, benzaldehyde (Swarup et al. 2013) and 2,3-butanedione (Brown et al. 2013).
