Identification and genomic structure of chemosensory proteins (CSP) and odorant binding proteins (OBP) genes expressed in foreleg tarsi of the swallowtail butterfly Papilio xuthus.

Chemoreception is a key feature for selection of host plants by phytophagous insects. Female swallowtail butterflies recognize their host plants using chemosensilla present on foreleg tarsi. We constructed a cDNA library of female tarsi and a genome library of Papilio xuthus. We identified 11 chemosensory protein (CSP) genes and three odorant binding proteins (OBP) genes from the cDNA library and eight additional CSP genes from the genome library using the ESTs as probes. A sequence similarity tree of insect CSPs showed that lepidopteran CSPs constructed big branches of the order. Small numbers of CSPs have been identified from the whole genomes of several insect orders which belong to branches separated from those of Lepidoptera. The CSP gene family of Lepidoptera may have diverged in at least two steps, the first on a small scale and the second on a large scale before and after the diversification of insect orders, respectively. Seventeen of 19 CSP genes of P. xuthus clustered in a specific region of the genome, suggesting that they were diversified by gene duplication from a common ancestral gene.