Sex-specific odorant receptors of the Tobacco Hornworm Manduca sexta

• Main Authors: Ewald Grosse-Wilde, Regina Stieber, Maike Forstner, Jürgen Krieger, Dieter Wicher, Bill S Hansson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2010-08-01
• Series: Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
• Subjects: Lepidoptera; Olfaction; Manduca sexta; odorant receptor; pheromone receptor
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncel.2010.00022/full

As odor information plays a vital role in the life of moths, their olfactory sense has evolved into a highly specific and sensitive apparatus relevant to reproduction and survival. The key players in the detection of odorants are olfactory receptor (OR) proteins. Here we identify four OR-encoding genes differentially expressed in the antennae of males and females of the sphingid moth Manduca sexta. Two male-specific receptors (the previously reported MsexOR-1 and the newly identified MsexOR-4) show great resemblance to other male moth pheromone ORs. The putative pheromone receptors are co-expressed with the co-receptor involved in general odorant signal transduction, the DmelOr83b homolog MsexOR-2. One female-specific receptor (MsexOR-5) displays similarities to BmorOR-19, a receptor in Bombyx mori tuned to the detection of the plant odor linalool.