What are ORs? Insect Odorant Receptors (ORs) are transmembrane proteins (7TM) that dimerize with Orco to form a channel sensitive to a ligand. The ligand is an odorant (volatile chemical) that triggers a neuronal response. See here for more information.
What is the purpose of this repository? We are trying to collect good quality sequences of complete sets of ORs from species with completely sequenced genomes. The dataset should be useful for research on the functionality and evolution of insect perception and behavior, and for the development of chemicals for pest control.
How was the curation process done? Sequences identified as pseudogenes or fragments were removed. After multiple sequence alignment with ORs from our collection, sequences showing large and unique insertions and deletions, or large stretches with low conservation compared to the aligned sequences, were entirely removed.
What did we do with the curated OR sequences? We clustered the sequences based on their sequence similarity, using OrthoFinder. These clusters are aimed to facilitate the characterization of the evolutionary history of the OR protein family, and to evaluate the relation between similarity in sequence features and biological properties.
How much information is currently in iOrME? By December 2021, we have curated OR data for 21 insect species. This is a total of 3902 sequences, divided in 206 clusters.
How to cite us? Mier P, Stoldt M, Fontaine JF, Libbrecht R, Martelli C, Foitzik S, Andrade-Navarro MA. Functional characterization of odorant receptor genes in solitary and social insects using machine learning. Genes, 13:919. PMID:35627304.
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