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The highly-conserved stomatin domain has been identified in genes throughout all classes of life. In animals, different stomatin domain-encoding genes have been implicated in the function of the kidney, red blood cells, and specific neuron types, although the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. In one well-studied example of stomatin domain gene function, the Caenorhabditis elegans gene mec-2 and its mouse homolog Stoml3 are required for the function of mechanosensory neurons, where they modulate the activity of mechanosensory ion channels on the plasma membrane. Here, we identify an additional shared function for mec-2 and Stoml3 in a very different sensory context, that of olfaction. In worms, we find that a subset of stomatin domain genes are expressed in olfactory neurons, but only mec-2 is strongly required for olfactory behavior. mec-2 acts cell-autonomously and multiple alternatively …