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A broadly tuned odorant receptor in neurons of trichoid sensilla in locust, Locusta migratoria.

ABSTRACT: Insects have evolved sophisticated olfactory reception systems to sense exogenous chemical signals. Odorant receptors (ORs) on the membrane of chemosensory neurons are believed to be key molecules in sensing exogenous chemical cues. ORs in different species of insects are diverse and should tune a species to its own specific semiochemicals relevant to their survival. The orthopteran insect, locust (Locusta migratoria), is a model hemimetabolous insect. There is very limited knowledge on the functions of locust ORs although many locust OR genes have been identified in genomic sequencing experiments. In this paper, a locust OR, LmigOR3 was localized to neurons housed in trichoid sensilla by in situ hybridization. LmigOR3 was expressed as a transgene in Drosophila trichoid olfactory neurons (aT1) lacking the endogenous receptor Or67d and the olfactory tuning curve and dose-response curves were established for this locust receptor. The results show that LmigOR3 sensitizes neurons to ketones, esters and heterocyclic compounds, indicating that LmigOR3 is a broadly tuned receptor. LmigOR3 is the first odorant receptor from Orthoptera that has been functionally analyzed in the Drosophila aT1 system. This work demonstrates the utility of the Drosophila aT1 system for functional analysis of locust odorant receptors and suggests that LmigOR3 may be involved in detecting food odorants, or perhaps locust body volatiles that may help us to develop new control methods for locusts.

SUBMITTER: You Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5697761 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A broadly tuned odorant receptor in neurons of trichoid sensilla in locust, Locusta migratoria.

You Yinwei Y Smith Dean P DP Lv Mingyue M Zhang Long L

Insect biochemistry and molecular biology 20161027

Insects have evolved sophisticated olfactory reception systems to sense exogenous chemical signals. Odorant receptors (ORs) on the membrane of chemosensory neurons are believed to be key molecules in sensing exogenous chemical cues. ORs in different species of insects are diverse and should tune a species to its own specific semiochemicals relevant to their survival. The orthopteran insect, locust (Locusta migratoria), is a model hemimetabolous insect. There is very limited knowledge on the func ...[more]

PMID: 27815144

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Olfaction in animals is important for host localization, mating and reproduction in heterogeneous chemical environments. Studying the molecular basis of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) systems can elucidate the evolution of olfaction and associated behaviours. Odorant receptors (ORs) in insects have been identified, particularly in the holometabolous model Drosophila, and some of them have been functionally studied. However, ORs in the locust-a hemimetabolous model insect and the most important insect crop pest-have not yet been identified, hindering our understanding of locust olfaction. Here, we report for the first time four putative ORs in Locusta migratoria: LmigOR1, LmigOR2, LmigOR3 and LmigOR4. RESULTS: These four putative OR genes encoded proteins with amino acids of 478, 436, 413 and 403 respectively. Sequence identity among them ranged from 19.7% to 35.4%. All ORs were tissue-specifically expressed in olfactory organs, without sex-biased characteristics. However, LmigOR1, LmigOR3 and LmigOR4 were only expressed in the antenna, while LmigOR2 could also be detected in mouthparts. In situ hybridization demonstrated that the LmigOR1antisense probe labelled olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) in almost all segments of the antenna, but only a few segments housed ORNs expressing LmigOR2. The number of neurons labelled by LmigOR1 antisense probes in each antennal segment was much greater (>10 neurons/segment) than that labelled by LmigOR2 probes (generally 1-3 neurons/segment). Furthermore, some of the labelled neurons could be attributed to the basiconic sensilla, but LmigOR1 and LmigOR2 were expressed in different subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results strongly suggested that these newly discovered genes encode locust ORs and the differential expression patterns of LmigOR1 and LmigOR2 implied distinct functions. These results may offer insights into locust olfaction and contribute to the understanding of the evolution of insect chemoreception.

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A broadly tuned odorant receptor in neurons of trichoid sensilla in locust, Locusta migratoria.

Publications

A broadly tuned odorant receptor in neurons of trichoid sensilla in locust, Locusta migratoria.

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