The findings, published in Nature, reveal that olfactory receptors indeed follow a logic rarely seen in other receptors of the nervous system. While most receptors are precisely shaped to pair with only a few select molecules in a lock-and-key fashion, most olfactory receptors each bind to a large number of different molecules. Their promiscuity in pairing with a variety of odors allows each receptor to respond to many chemical components. From there, the brain can figure out the odor by considering the activation pattern of combinations of receptors.

— Neuroscientist (and MacArthur Fellow) Vanessa Ruta and her colleagues have published The structural basis of odorant recognition in insect olfactory receptors. Read more in New Research Reveals How Smell Receptors Work – Answers Decades-Old Question of Odor Recognition at SciTechDaily, or see a longer article (Secret Workings of Smell Receptors Revealed for First Time) at Quanta magazine.