| Title: | Targeted disruption of a single sex pheromone receptor gene completely abolishes in vivo pheromone response in the silkmoth |
| Author(s): | Sakurai T; Mitsuno H; Mikami A; Uchino K; Tabuchi M; Zhang F; Sezutsu H; Kanzaki R; |
| Address: | "Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan. Transgenic Silkworm Research Unit, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 1-2 Owashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8634, Japan. McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Male moths use species-specific sex pheromones to identify and orientate toward conspecific females. Odorant receptors (ORs) for sex pheromone substances have been identified as sex pheromone receptors in various moth species. However, direct in vivo evidence linking the functional role of these ORs with behavioural responses is lacking. In the silkmoth, Bombyx mori, female moths emit two sex pheromone components, bombykol and bombykal, but only bombykol elicits sexual behaviour in male moths. A sex pheromone receptor BmOR1 is specifically tuned to bombykol and is expressed in specialized olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) in the pheromone sensitive long sensilla trichodea of male silkmoth antennae. Here, we show that disruption of the BmOR1 gene, mediated by transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), completely removes ORN sensitivity to bombykol and corresponding pheromone-source searching behaviour in male moths. Furthermore, transgenic rescue of BmOR1 restored normal behavioural responses to bombykol. Our results demonstrate that BmOR1 is required for the physiological and behavioural response to bombykol, demonstrating that it is the receptor that mediates sex pheromone responses in male silkmoths. This study provides the first direct evidence that a member of the sex pheromone receptor family in moth species mediates conspecific sex pheromone information for sexual behaviour" |
| Keywords: | "Action Potentials Amino Acid Sequence Animals Base Sequence Bombyx/genetics/*metabolism Fatty Alcohols/pharmacology Female Gene Knockout Techniques Insect Proteins/*genetics/metabolism Male Molecular Sequence Data Receptors, Pheromone/*genetics/metabolism;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineSakurai, Takeshi Mitsuno, Hidefumi Mikami, Akihisa Uchino, Keiro Tabuchi, Masashi Zhang, Feng Sezutsu, Hideki Kanzaki, Ryohei eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2015/06/06 Sci Rep. 2015 Jun 5; 5:11001. doi: 10.1038/srep11001" |
