BACKGROUND: Insects detect environmental chemicals via a large and rapidly evolving family of chemosensory receptor proteins. Although our understanding of the molecular genetic basis for Drosophila chemoreception has increased enormously in the last decade, similar understanding in other insects remains limited. The tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, has long been an important model for insect chemosensation, particularly from ecological, behavioral, and physiological standpoints. It is also a major agricultural pest on solanaceous crops. However, little sequence information and lack of genetic tools has prevented molecular genetic analysis in this species. The ability to connect molecular genetic mechanisms, including potential lineage-specific changes in chemosensory genes, to ecologically relevant behaviors and specializations in M. sexta would be greatly beneficial. RESULTS: Here, we sequenced transcriptomes from adult and larval chemosensory tissues and identified chemosensory genes based on sequence homology. We also used dsRNA feeding as a method to induce RNA interference in larval chemosensory tissues. CONCLUSIONS: We report identification of new chemosensory receptor genes including 17 novel odorant receptors and one novel gustatory receptor. Further, we demonstrate that systemic RNA interference can be used in larval olfactory neurons to reduce expression of chemosensory receptor transcripts. Together, our results further the development of M. sexta as a model for functional analysis of insect chemosensation.
BACKGROUND: Insects detect environmental chemicals via a large and rapidly evolving family of chemosensory receptor proteins. Although our understanding of the molecular genetic basis for Drosophila chemoreception has increased enormously in the last decade, similar understanding in other insects remains limited. The tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, has long been an important model for insect chemosensation, particularly from ecological, behavioral, and physiological standpoints. It is also a major agricultural pest on solanaceous crops. However, little sequence information and lack of genetic tools has prevented molecular genetic analysis in this species. The ability to connect molecular genetic mechanisms, including potential lineage-specific changes in chemosensory genes, to ecologically relevant behaviors and specializations in M. sexta would be greatly beneficial. RESULTS: Here, we sequenced transcriptomes from adult and larval chemosensory tissues and identified chemosensory genes based on sequence homology. We also used dsRNA feeding as a method to induce RNA interference in larval chemosensory tissues. CONCLUSIONS: We report identification of new chemosensory receptor genes including 17 novel odorant receptors and one novel gustatory receptor. Further, we demonstrate that systemic RNA interference can be used in larval olfactory neurons to reduce expression of chemosensory receptor transcripts. Together, our results further the development of M. sexta as a model for functional analysis of insect chemosensation.
Authors: Olle Terenius; Alexie Papanicolaou; Jennie S Garbutt; Ioannis Eleftherianos; Hanneke Huvenne; Sriramana Kanginakudru; Merete Albrechtsen; Chunju An; Jean-Luc Aymeric; Andrea Barthel; Piotr Bebas; Kavita Bitra; Alejandra Bravo; François Chevalier; Derek P Collinge; Cristina M Crava; Ruud A de Maagd; Bernard Duvic; Martin Erlandson; Ingrid Faye; Gabriella Felföldi; Haruhiko Fujiwara; Ryo Futahashi; Archana S Gandhe; Heather S Gatehouse; Laurence N Gatehouse; Jadwiga M Giebultowicz; Isabel Gómez; Cornelis J P Grimmelikhuijzen; Astrid T Groot; Frank Hauser; David G Heckel; Dwayne D Hegedus; Steven Hrycaj; Lihua Huang; J Joe Hull; Kostas Iatrou; Masatoshi Iga; Michael R Kanost; Joanna Kotwica; Changyou Li; Jianghong Li; Jisheng Liu; Magnus Lundmark; Shogo Matsumoto; Martina Meyering-Vos; Peter J Millichap; Antónia Monteiro; Nirotpal Mrinal; Teruyuki Niimi; Daniela Nowara; Atsushi Ohnishi; Vicencio Oostra; Katsuhisa Ozaki; Maria Papakonstantinou; Aleksandar Popadic; Manchikatla V Rajam; Suzanne Saenko; Robert M Simpson; Mario Soberón; Michael R Strand; Shuichiro Tomita; Umut Toprak; Ping Wang; Choon Wei Wee; Steven Whyard; Wenqing Zhang; Javaregowda Nagaraju; Richard H Ffrench-Constant; Salvador Herrero; Karl Gordon; Luc Swevers; Guy Smagghe Journal: J Insect Physiol Date: 2010-11-20 Impact factor: 2.354
Authors: Ewald Grosse-Wilde; Linda S Kuebler; Sascha Bucks; Heiko Vogel; Dieter Wicher; Bill S Hansson Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2011-04-15 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: Manuela Griebler; Stephanie A Westerlund; Klaus H Hoffmann; Martina Meyering-Vos Journal: J Insect Physiol Date: 2008-05-24 Impact factor: 2.354
Authors: Anika Afroz; Natalie Howlett; Aditi Shukla; Farah Ahmad; Elizabeth Batista; Katie Bedard; Sara Payne; Brian Morton; Jennifer H Mansfield; John I Glendinning Journal: Chem Senses Date: 2013-07-04 Impact factor: 3.160
Authors: Adriana D Briscoe; Aide Macias-Muñoz; Krzysztof M Kozak; James R Walters; Furong Yuan; Gabriel A Jamie; Simon H Martin; Kanchon K Dasmahapatra; Laura C Ferguson; James Mallet; Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly; Chris D Jiggins Journal: PLoS Genet Date: 2013-07-11 Impact factor: 5.917