| Title: | Insect sex-pheromone signals mediated by specific combinations of olfactory receptors |
| Author(s): | Nakagawa T; Sakurai T; Nishioka T; Touhara K; |
| Address: | "Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8562, Japan" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1095-9203 (Electronic) 0036-8075 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "We describe two male-specific olfactory receptors (ORs) in the silk moth, Bombyx mori, that are mutually exclusively expressed in a pair of adjacent pheromone-sensitive neurons of male antennae: One is specifically tuned to bombykol, the sex pheromone, and the other to bombykal, its oxidized form. Both pheromone ORs are coexpressed with an OR from the highly conserved insect OR subfamily. This coexpression promotes the functional expression of pheromone receptors and confers ligand-stimulated nonselective cation channel activity. The same effects were also observed for general ORs. Both odorant and pheromone signaling pathways are mediated by means of a common mechanism in insects" |
| Keywords: | "Alkadienes/metabolism/*pharmacology Animals Bombyx/genetics/*physiology Cations/metabolism Dose-Response Relationship, Drug Fatty Alcohols/metabolism/*pharmacology Female Genes, Insect In Situ Hybridization Insect Proteins/genetics/*physiology Ion Channel;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineNakagawa, Takao Sakurai, Takeshi Nishioka, Takaaki Touhara, Kazushige eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2005/02/05 Science. 2005 Mar 11; 307(5715):1638-42. doi: 10.1126/science.1106267. Epub 2005 Feb 3" |
