Methods for enhancing odorant receptors

This invention relates to novel synthetic odorant receptors capable of cell surface localization upon cellular expression. Specifically, it provides synthetic odorant receptors having a consensus amino acid sequence deduced from a plurality of odorant receptors within an odorant receptor family, wherein the consensus amino acid sequence represents the mostly frequently present amino acid residues for each amino acid position deduced from a plurality of odorant receptors within an odorant receptor family. Additionally, the present invention provides methods of use, methods of synthesis, and cell lines expressing one or more of such novel synthetic odorant receptors.