Study of chicken olfactory receptors (CORs) using in silico approach
Wed-P2-071
Presented by: Aurore Lamy
Chemical communication is based on the release and perception of semiochemicals, mostly detected by the vomeronasal organ (VNO), which can induce physiological and behavioural responses in animals. Many studies have shown the significance of pheromones and the absence of VNO in birds. Thus, in birds, these molecules can be detected by the olfactory receptors (ORs) of the chemosensory neurons in the olfactory epithelium (OE), triggering signal transmission to the olfactory bulb and the brain. Several computational studies have been reported about the structural modeling of mouse and human ORs and the receptor deorphanization from the ligands. However, there is only one experimental structure of OR currently available. Therefore, the sequence and structural annotation of ORs are necessarily studied using in silico approach. This study focuses on chicken ORs (CORs). Using computational tools, the CORs were analyzed for sequence conservation, phylogeny, topology, and to construct the structural models. We have initially selected 15 CORs which are expressed in chick OE. The results showed that COR sequences share an average of 56% identity with different mammals and 84% with helmeted guinea fowl. Phylogenetic studies showed the evolutionary relationship between mammalian orthologs and the 15 selected CORs. Furthermore, the CORs were screened based on the 7-transmembrane OUT topology analysis. Then, the 15 selected sequences were used to construct models using the fast homology search of MMseq2 with AlphaFold. According to structure quality and sequence identity, we have selected 5 COR models (COR4, COR7, COR8, COR9, and OR5J2) and validated them by GROMACS molecular dynamic simulation (MDS) in a membrane complex. Indeed, during simulations each model reaches a RMSD stability below 0.3 nm for at least 25 ns. The results allow us to envisage a study of deorphanization on the receptor models, which will improve the understanding of chemical communication in poultry.