Abstract
Chemosensory receptors play key roles in insect behavior. Thus, genes encoding these receptors have great potential for use in integrated pest management. The hover fly Scaeva pyrastri (L.) is an important pollinating insect and a natural enemy of aphids, mainly distributed in the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. However, a systematic identification of their chemosensory receptor genes in the antennae has not been reported. In the present study, we assembled the antennal transcriptome of S. pyrastri by using Illumina sequencing technology. Analysis of the transcriptome data identified 60 candidate chemosensory genes, including 38 for odorant receptors (ORs), 16 for ionotropic receptors (IRs), and 6 for gustatory receptors (GRs). The numbers are similar to those of other Diptera species, suggesting that we were able to successfully identify S. pyrastri chemosensory genes. We analyzed the expression patterns of all genes by using reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR), and found that some genes exhibited sex-biased or sex-specific expression. These candidate chemosensory genes and their tissue expression profiles provide information for further studies aimed at fully understanding the molecular basis behind chemoreception-related behaviors in S. pyrastri.
Highlights
An accurate and complex olfactory system helps insects find resources [1]
We further conducted a comprehensive analysis of their phylogeny and sex distribution and the results clearly demonstrated that some genes exhibit sex-biased or -specific expression
The gene ontology (GO) annotations resulting from the Blast2GO pipeline revealed that 33.24% (21,165) of all unigenes were successfully assigned to functional groups
Summary
An accurate and complex olfactory system helps insects find resources (e.g., suitable hosts, predators, oviposition sites, mates) [1]. 3 major chemosensory receptor families are involved: olfactory receptors (ORs) [1, 11, 12], gustatory receptors (GRs) [13,14,15], and ionotropic receptors (IRs) [4, 16, 17]. These receptors are located on the dendrites of neurons in antenna chemosensilla and other chemosensory tissues
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