MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila

Author(s)
Franco, Maria Isabel; Turin, Luca; Mershin, Andreas; Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C.
Thumbnail
DownloadFranco-2011-Aug-Reply to Hettinger_.pdf (433.9Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY

Publisher Policy

Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.

Terms of use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
We would like to thank Dr. Hettinger (1) for his positive comment on our results showing that flies can discriminate isotopes by smell and are capable of cross-learning between odorants sharing a molecular vibration. Our article (2) demonstrated the presence of a physical (vibrational) component to odor character necessitating a vibration-sensing mechanism, the nature of which was not addressed experimentally and remains to be elucidated. We suggest that it likely involves inelastic electron tunneling, because this is consistent with our experimental data and with Brookes et al. (3), who have shown that an inelastic tunneling mechanism in olfaction is physically plausible. As pointed out by Luca Turin, this odorant detection mechanism does not require generation of free electrons by NADPH (4) and offers a potential explanation to why most enantiomer pairs smell identical. Further, Takane and Mitchell (5) have found IR spectra to be good predictors of odor character.
Date issued
2011-08
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70054
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Biomedical Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Franco, M. I. et al. “Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction Is a Physical and a Chemical Sense in Drosophila.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.31 (2011): E350–E350. Web.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1091-6490
0027-8424

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logo

Find us on

Twitter Instagram YouTube

MIT Libraries navigation

SearchHours & locationsBorrow & requestResearch supportAbout us
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibility
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.