Abstract
Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are prevalent in the antennal transcriptomes of different orders of insects. Studies on OBPs have focused on their role in the insect chemosensory system, but knowledge of their functions in the insect testis is limited. We sequenced the transcriptomes of the Athetis dissimilis reproductive organs and analyzed the expression of AdisOBP genes in different tissues. We identified 23 OBPs in the testis and ovaries and 31 OBPs in antennal transcriptomes. The results of real-time quantitative PCR revealed that 23 of the 54 OBP genes were highly expressed in both female and male antennae, including three that exhibited male-biased expression and 15 that exhibited female-biased expression. A total of 24 OBPs were highly expressed in the testis of A. dissimilis, while expression of OBPs in the ovaries was very low. These findings highlight the functional diversity of OBPs in insects and can facilitate further studies on the OBPs in A. dissimilis and lepidopteran species.
Highlights
Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are prevalent in the antennal transcriptomes of different orders of insects
Insects have a complex chemosensory system in which pheromones and plant odors are initially recognized by odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) expressed in the antennal sensilla lymph that transfer the odorants to membrane-bound olfactory receptors (ORs) to activate olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) and stimulate behavioral r esponses[6,7,8,9,10,11]
We identified 31 novel OBPs through the analysis of A. dissimilis antennal transcriptomes, except for 5 AdisOBP genes identified in a previous study[32]
Summary
Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are prevalent in the antennal transcriptomes of different orders of insects. We sequenced the transcriptomes of the Athetis dissimilis reproductive organs and analyzed the expression of AdisOBP genes in different tissues. Li et al showed that AaegOBP22 was highly expressed in the male reproductive organs of Aedes aegypti and transfers to females during mating. This suggests an additional function for this protein as pheromone carrier, analogously to vertebrates’ urinary and salivary proteins as well as some insect chemosensory proteins[26]. We sequenced the transcriptomes of the A. dissimilis reproductive organs, and studied the expression of the OBPs in the antennae, testis and ovaries. Our study provides a new reference for studying the function of OBP genes
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