Abstract
The gustatory and olfactory cells can detect multifarious substances in external environments. Recently, bitter substances and odorants are suggested to be detected by direct adsorption on a lipid bilayer matrix without a specific receptor protein in receptor membranes and to cause a membrane potential and an impulse generation. In this review, we describe that the adsorption of various bitter and odor substances on a lipid bilayer matrix can be easily detected by observing a frequency change of a synthetic multibilayer-coated piezoelectric crystal in an aqueous or a gas phase. The adsorption process was followed by changes of a membrane potential and a membrane resistance of a synthetic bilayer membrane. The bilayer-coated crystal will become a new tool as an odor sensor and to study the biological mechanism of gustatory and olfactory cells.
