Identification of candidate olfactory genes in Leptinotarsa decemlineata by antennal transcriptome analysis

Yang Liu,Yongqiang Zhang,Depan Cao,Guirong Wang,Lujuan Sun,William B Walker

doi:10.3389/fevo.2015.00060

Abstract

The sense of smell is critical for the survival of insects, by which insects detect the odor signals in the environment and make appropriate behavioral responses such as host preference, mate choice, and oviposition site selection. The antenna is the main olfactory organ in insects. Multiple antennal proteins have been suggested to be involved in olfactory signal transduction pathway such as odorant receptors (ORs), ionotropic receptors (IRs), odorant binding proteins (OBPs), chemosensory proteins (CSPs) and sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs). In this study, we identified several olfactory gene subfamilies in the economically important Coleopteran agricultural pest, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, by assembling the adult male and female antennal transcriptomes. In the male and female antennal transcriptome, we identified a total of 37 OR genes, 10 IR genes, 26 OBP genes, 15 CSP genes and 3 SNMP genes. Further all candidate ORs were validated to be expressed in male or female antenna by semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Most of the candidate OR genes have similar expression level in male and female. A few OR genes have been detected as male-specific (LdecOR6) or male-bias (LdecOR5, LdecOR12, LdecOR26 and LdecOR32) expression. As well as that, two OR genes (LdecOR3 and LdecOR29) were proved to be expressed higher in female. Our findings make it possible for future research of the olfactory system of L. decemlineata at the molecular level.

Highlights

IntroductionThe sense of smell, is critically important for insects survival on earth through mediating key behaviors such as food identification, oviposition site selection, mate choice, predator avoidance, and so on (Mustaparta, 1990; Hildebrand, 1995; Sato and Touhara, 2009)
Olfaction, the sense of smell, is critically important for insects survival on earth through mediating key behaviors such as food identification, oviposition site selection, mate choice, predator avoidance, and so on (Mustaparta, 1990; Hildebrand, 1995; Sato and Touhara, 2009).The antenna is the major organ for insect olfactory sensing and its surface is coved by thousands of special hair structures called “sensilla” (Hildebrand and Shepherd, 1997)
The clean reads of the L. decemlineata antennal transcriptome were deposited in the NCBI SRA database, under the accession number of SRX974484 and SRX974488

Summary

Introduction

The sense of smell, is critically important for insects survival on earth through mediating key behaviors such as food identification, oviposition site selection, mate choice, predator avoidance, and so on (Mustaparta, 1990; Hildebrand, 1995; Sato and Touhara, 2009). The antenna is the major organ for insect olfactory sensing and its surface is coved by thousands of special hair structures called “sensilla” (Hildebrand and Shepherd, 1997). The sensillum is where peripheral olfactory signal transduction events occur. Each sensillum contains the dendrites of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). The axons of these ORNs are projected into the antennal lymph on toward the brain (Shanbhag et al, 1999, 2000). The ORNs act as biological transducers in that they convert the signal of ecologically relevant volatile chemicals into electrical

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