Even though they don’t have conventional noses, insects have adapted to smell odors in nearly every imaginable niche. Mosquitoes find us by our odor molecules binding to odor receptors on their antennae, bees are drawn to flowers the same way, whereas ticks detect an approaching host using receptors on their forelegs. Insects’ ability to smell is uniquely adapted to their needs and habitats and Vanessa Ruta, Associate Professor at Rockefeller University, reveals a key to this versatility in research presented on Monday, February 17 at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, California.
Click here for original story, Insects’ ability to smell is phenomenally diverse, a new protein structure hints at how
Source: Phys.org