Molecular Characterization and Expression Profiling of Odorant-Binding Proteins in Apolygus lucorum

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 10; p. e0140562
• Main Authors: Yuan, Hai-Bin, Ding, Yu-Xiao, Gu, Shao-Hua, Sun, Liang, Zhu, Xiao-Qiang, Liu, Hang-Wei, Dhiloo, Khalid Hussain, Zhang, Yong-Jun, Guo, Yu-Yuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 14.10.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agriculture; Amino Acid Sequence; Analysis; Animals; Antennae; Apolygus lucorum; Binding; Binding proteins; Biology; Chemical properties; Chemoreception; Chemosensory perception; Clustering; Cotton; Feeding behavior; Female; Flowering; Flowering plants; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Genetic aspects; Hemiptera; Herbivores; Heteroptera; Heteroptera - classification; Heteroptera - genetics; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Host plants; Host range; Insecticides; Insects; Laboratories; Lepidoptera; Localization; Male; Miridae; Mirids; Molecular Sequence Data; Neurons; Odorant-binding protein; Odorants; Olfaction; Pests; Pheromones; Phylogeny; Physiological aspects; Plant diseases; Plant tissues; Proteins; Receptors, Odorant - chemistry; Receptors, Odorant - genetics; Sequence Alignment; Sex; Sex pheromone; Transcriptome; Volatiles; China; Pakistan; Beijing China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140562

Apolygus lucorum (Meyer-Dür) (Hemiptera: Miridae) is one of the most important agricultural pests, with broad host range and cryptic feeding habits in China. Chemosensory behavior plays an important role in many crucial stages in the life of A. lucorum, such as the detection of sex pheromone cues during mate pursuit and fragrant odorants during flowering host plant localization. Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are involved in the initial biochemical recognition steps in semiochemical perception. In the present study, a transcriptomics-based approach was used to identify potential OBPs in A. lucorum. In total, 38 putative OBP genes were identified, corresponding to 26 'classic' OBPs and 12 'Plus-C' OBPs. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that A. lucorum OBP proteins are more closely related to the OBP proteins of other mirid bugs as the same family OBP clustering together. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis for the first reported 23 AlucOBPs revealed that the expression level of 11 AlucOBP genes were significantly higher in antennae of both sexes than in other tissues. Three of them were male antennae-biased and six were female antennae-biased, suggesting their putative roles in the detection of female sex pheromones and host plant volatiles. In addition, three, four, two and one AlucOBPs had the highest degree of enrichment in the stylet, head, leg, and in abdomen tissues, respectively. Two other OBPs were ubiquitously expressed in the main tissues, including antennae, stylets, heads, legs and wings. Most orthologs had similar expression patterns, strongly indicating that these genes have the same function in olfaction and gustation.