Scientists create first-ever 'smell map' of the nose's smell receptors

For most of us, the sense of smell is an integral part of everyday life; it plays a critical role in providing information about our surroundings, alerting us to potential dangers, enhancing our sense of taste, and evoking emotions and memories. Working in mice, a research team has now created the first detailed map of how the thousand-plus types of smell receptors in the nose are organized. The team discovered that unlike what scientists had long believed, the neurons expressing these receptors have a high degree of spatial organization: They form horizontal stripes based on receptor type from the top of the nose to the bottom. Their work appears in Cell.