Odorant-binding protein 2A explained

Odorant-binding protein 2a is a protein that in humans is encoded by the OBP2A gene.

This gene encodes a small extracellular protein belonging to the lipocalin superfamily. The protein is thought to transport small, hydrophobic, volatile molecules or odorants through the nasal mucus to olfactory receptors, and may also function as a scavenger of highly concentrated or toxic odors. The protein is expressed as a monomer in the nasal mucus, and can bind diverse types of odorants with a higher affinity for aldehydes and fatty acids. This gene and a highly similar family member are located in a cluster of lipocalin genes on chromosome 9. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been described, but their biological validity has not been determined.^[1]

Further reading

• Tegoni M, Pelosi P, Vincent F, etal . Mammalian odorant binding proteins. . Biochim. Biophys. Acta . 1482 . 1–2 . 229–40 . 2000 . 11058764 . 10.1016/S0167-4838(00)00167-9.
• Tcatchoff L, Nespoulous C, Pernollet JC, Briand L . A single lysyl residue defines the binding specificity of a human odorant-binding protein for aldehydes . FEBS Lett. . 580 . 8 . 2102–8 . 2006 . 16546182 . 10.1016/j.febslet.2006.03.017 . 13269549 .
• Breustedt DA, Schönfeld DL, Skerra A . Comparative ligand-binding analysis of ten human lipocalins . Biochim. Biophys. Acta . 1764 . 2 . 161–73 . 2006 . 16461020 . 10.1016/j.bbapap.2005.12.006 .
• Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA, etal . The Status, Quality, and Expansion of the NIH Full-Length cDNA Project: The Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) . Genome Res. . 14 . 10B . 2121–7 . 2004 . 15489334 . 10.1101/gr.2596504 . 528928 .
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, etal . Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 99 . 26 . 16899–903 . 2003 . 12477932 . 10.1073/pnas.242603899 . 139241 . 2002PNAS...9916899M . free .
• Matarazzo V, Zsürger N, Guillemot JC, etal . Porcine odorant-binding protein selectively binds to a human olfactory receptor . Chem. Senses . 27 . 8 . 691–701 . 2003 . 12379593 . 10.1093/chemse/27.8.691 . free .
• Briand L, Eloit C, Nespoulous C, etal . Evidence of an odorant-binding protein in the human olfactory mucus: location, structural characterization, and odorant-binding properties . Biochemistry . 41 . 23 . 7241–52 . 2002 . 12044155 . 10.1021/bi015916c .
• Lacazette E, Gachon AM, Pitiot G . A novel human odorant-binding protein gene family resulting from genomic duplicons at 9q34: differential expression in the oral and genital spheres . Hum. Mol. Genet. . 9 . 2 . 289–301 . 2000 . 10607840 . 10.1093/hmg/9.2.289 . free .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Entrez Gene: OBP2A odorant binding protein 2A.