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Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Taste and Smell
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Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Taste and Smell

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2026 | Viewed by 2012

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Naina Bhatia-Dey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Anatomy, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059, USA
Interests: olfaction; anosmia; hyposmia; stem cell biology; cell biology; cancer biology
Prof. Dr. Thomas Heinbockel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA
Interests: translational medicine; drug discovery; public health; neural signaling and synaptic transmission in the central nervous system; functional organization of the olfactory and limbic system; cellular and network mechanisms of brain function and dysfunction studied with electrophysiological, optical, anatomical, and pharmacological methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

After being on the relatively low spectrum of research interest, our sense of smell is now emerging at the forefront of science. It is the first sensory modality that is affected by aging, environment, epigenetic alterations, infections, onset of neurodegeneration, neurodevelopment, and perhaps many more yet to be identified modulators. It has always been closely related to our sense of taste.  Many of the same factors affect both senses. However, in response to diverse factors, both these sensory modalities show a range of effect, implying one sense is affected more than the other one. Such trends indicate an intricate interplay of cellular and molecular pathways in development and maintenance of these modalities at various life stages. We invite your original research pertaining to these two modalities under diverse pathological conditions as well as your deep insight into the novel factors affecting them. Along with that, your developing views on factors or likely factors affecting the sense of taste and smell together or individually are welcome as review articles.

This Special Issue aims to cover :

  •    Original research on olfaction and gustationtogether or individually
  •    Factors/ pathological conditions affecting olfaction and gustation
  •    New developments in cellular/molecular/physiological pathways for the two senses
  •    Review articles on emerging trends affecting olfaction, gustation or both
  •    Review articles identifying less researched factors affecting the two senses 

Dr. Naina Bhatia-Dey
Prof. Dr. Thomas Heinbockel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • olfaction
  • anosmia
  • hyposmia
  • ageusia
  • dysgeusia
  • gustation
  • chemesthesis
  • receptors
  • chemosensory processing
  • epigenome

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5291 KB  
Article
Glomerulus-Specific Inhomogeneity of the Basal Activity Map in the Olfactory Bulb
by Stefan Fink, Natalie Fomin-Thunemann, Farzin Kamari, Yury Kovalchuk and Olga Garaschuk
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(8), 3684; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27083684 - 21 Apr 2026
Viewed by 422
Abstract
Glomeruli are signal-processing units of the olfactory bulb (OB) that play a key role in many OB computations, including contrast enhancement, gain control, and odorant-selective habituation. In awake mice, we unveil an extremely stable, inhomogeneous map of basal glomerulus-specific activity that serves as [...] Read more.
Glomeruli are signal-processing units of the olfactory bulb (OB) that play a key role in many OB computations, including contrast enhancement, gain control, and odorant-selective habituation. In awake mice, we unveil an extremely stable, inhomogeneous map of basal glomerulus-specific activity that serves as the background against which olfactory signal processing occurs. This activity is strongly driven by centrifugal cholinergic inputs; endogenous and airflow-evoked spiking of olfactory sensory neurons; and, to a minor extent, by the odor environment. Moreover, it is brain-state dependent and suppressed under various forms of anesthesia, and is therefore likely attenuated during sleep. These results reveal an important layer in the OB signal-processing network, likely increasing the system’s variance and dynamic range via glomerulus-specific functional inhomogeneity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Taste and Smell)
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33 pages, 17549 KB  
Article
HP1β and H3K9me3 Regulate Olfactory Receptor Choice and Transcriptional Identity
by Martín Escamilla-del-Arenal, Rachel Duffié, Hani Shayya, Valentina Loconte, Axel Ekman, Lena Street, Kevin Monahan, Carolyn Larabell, Marko Jovanovic and Stavros Lomvardas
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(7), 2958; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27072958 - 24 Mar 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 515
Abstract
Diverse epigenetic regulatory mechanisms ensure and modulate cellular diversity. The histone 3 lysine 9 me3 (H3K9me3) post-translational modification participates in silencing lineage-inappropriate genes by restricting access of transcription factors and other regulatory proteins to genes that control cell fate. Mouse olfactory sensory neurons [...] Read more.
Diverse epigenetic regulatory mechanisms ensure and modulate cellular diversity. The histone 3 lysine 9 me3 (H3K9me3) post-translational modification participates in silencing lineage-inappropriate genes by restricting access of transcription factors and other regulatory proteins to genes that control cell fate. Mouse olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) select one olfactory receptor (OR) gene out of 2600 possibilities. This monoallelic and stochastic OR choice occurs as OSNs differentiate and undergo dramatic changes in nuclear architecture. OR genes from different chromosomes converge into specialized nuclear bodies and chromatin compartments, as H3K9me3 and chromatin binding proteins including heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) are incorporated. In this work, we have uncovered an unexpected role for HP1β in OR choice and neuronal identity that cannot be rescued by HP1α in vivo. With the use of a conditional knock-in mouse model, that after CRE expression replaces HP1β with HP1α, we observe changes in H3K9me3 levels and DNA accessibility over OR gene clusters. These changes alter the expression patterns that partition the mouse olfactory epithelium into five OR expression zones, which results in a reduced OR repertoire that leads to a loss of olfactory sensory neuron diversity. We propose that HP1β modulates the competition of OR promoters for enhancers to promote receptor diversity by establishing repression gradients in a zonal fashion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Taste and Smell)
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17 pages, 2928 KB  
Article
Nerve Injury-Induced Immune Responses in the Taste Bud Target Field
by Josh Brown, Yonggang Bao, Tagwa Ali, Emma Heisey, Osarume Ogala, Taylor Hardeman and Lynnette McCluskey
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(4), 1839; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27041839 - 14 Feb 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 470
Abstract
Damage to the chorda tympani (CT) nerve through trauma or experimental nerve axotomy results in the degeneration of anterior taste buds and taste loss. Our previous work demonstrated that interleukin-1 receptor 1 (Il1r) signaling is required for taste bud regeneration and [...] Read more.
Damage to the chorda tympani (CT) nerve through trauma or experimental nerve axotomy results in the degeneration of anterior taste buds and taste loss. Our previous work demonstrated that interleukin-1 receptor 1 (Il1r) signaling is required for taste bud regeneration and the recovery of taste function. However, the effects of experimental axotomy on immune responses in the absence of Il1r signaling remain unclear. Here we performed unilateral CT sectioning in Il1r KO or wild-type mice to observe changes in innate immune cell populations in the anterior taste field. We found that CD45+ immune cells, CD68+ and CD206+ M2-like macrophages are significantly increased near anterior taste buds at days two and five post-injury in wild-type but not Il1r KO mice. However, taste buds degenerated at similar time points in both strains, suggesting that a suppressed immune responses in the absence of Il1r signaling is not the primary reason for later functional deficits. The presence of pro-regenerative M2-like macrophages may play a role in later taste bud regeneration and functional recovery in the injured peripheral taste system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Taste and Smell)
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Review

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20 pages, 4034 KB  
Review
Functional Divergence and Emerging Roles of the ANO–TMC–TMEM63 Channel Families in Olfaction and Gustation
by Hyungsup Kim
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(9), 3989; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27093989 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2026
Viewed by 136
Abstract
The olfactory and gustatory systems are essential for survival, enabling organisms to detect and respond to environmental chemical cues. Although canonical signaling pathways in smell and taste have been well defined, growing evidence highlights additional ion channel families as key modulators of sensory [...] Read more.
The olfactory and gustatory systems are essential for survival, enabling organisms to detect and respond to environmental chemical cues. Although canonical signaling pathways in smell and taste have been well defined, growing evidence highlights additional ion channel families as key modulators of sensory responses. Recent studies identify the anoctamin, transmembrane channel-like, and TMEM63 superfamily as a class of non-canonical sensory effectors that regulate signal amplification, excitability, and epithelial homeostasis across chemosensory systems. In the mammalian olfactory epithelium, specific anoctamin channels enhance odor-evoked responses and contribute to tissue homeostasis. In the gustatory system, salt detection is now understood to involve multiple parallel signaling pathways, with TMC4 emerging as a key contributor to high-salt and salt-associated taste sensing. These channel families are evolutionarily conserved across species, including C. elegans, Drosophila, and aquatic organisms, where they mediate chemosensation, mechanosensation, humidity detection, and osmoregulation. This functional versatility is supported by a shared structural architecture that enables selective ion conduction and, in some members, regulated phospholipid scrambling. This review proposes a unifying framework in which anoctamin and transmembrane channel-like proteins act as multimodal regulators of sensory signaling, linking environmental cues to cellular excitability and microenvironmental control and highlighting new principles of chemosensory organization and therapeutic potential. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Taste and Smell)
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