Molecular organization of vomeronasal chemoreception

Making sense of vomeronasal signals Humans have retained only one functional chemosensing organ, the nose, but many terrestrial vertebrates also rely on a secondary system, the vomeronasal organ. Its primary role is to mediate the social and defensive responses to chemical signals emitted from either conspecifics (pheromones) or animals from other species (kairomones). Catherine Dulac and colleagues have now identified a series of chemoreceptor proteins that respond specifically to subsets of chemical cues produced by potential sexual partners or aggressors, and possible prey or predators. The 'de-orphaning' of close to a hundred vomeronasal receptors paves the way for further dissection of the neural circuits that control innate behaviours in response to socially relevant chemical signals.