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Abstract

The detection of chemical signals from the environment and the processing of their informational content are essential tasks
for any living system. Different receptor types that emerged during evolution to perceive chemosensory information facilitate
these tasks. Here we discuss the basic mechanisms of chemoreceptor function as metabotropic or ionotropic and give an
overview of different protein classes serving as olfactory and gustatory receptors in nonmammalian vertebrates. We start with
an excursion on olfactory receptors in insects for illustration, since it is presently the best understood example of a chemosensory system.