Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are small scavenger proteins that are mainly known as transporters of pheromone/odor molecules at the periphery of sensory neurons in the insect antennae and in the producing cells from the moth female pheromone gland.Sequencing cDNAs of RNA encoding CSPs in the antennae, legs, head, pheromone gland and wings from five single individual adult females of the silkworm moth Bombyx mori showed that they differed from genomic sequences by subtle nucleotide replacement (RDD). Both intronless and intronic CSP genes expressed RDDs, although in different rates. Most interestingly, in our study the degree of RDDs in CSP genes were found to be tissue-specific. The proportion of CSP-RDDs was found to be significantly much higher in the pheromone gland. In addition, Western blot analysis of proteins in different tissues showed existence of multiple CSP protein variant chains particularly found in the pheromone gland. Peptide sequencing demonstrated the occurrence of a pleiad of protein variants for most of all BmorCSPs from the pheromone gland. Our findings show that RNA editing is an important feature in the expression of CSPs and that a high variety of RDDs is found to expand drastically thus altering the repertoire of CSP proteins in a tissue-specific manner.

Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are a group of small soluble proteins found so far exclusively in arthropod species. These proteins act in chemical communication and perception. In this study, a gene encoding the Type 1 CSP (BtabCSP1) from the agricultural pest Bemisia tabaci (whitefly) was analyzed to understand sequence variation and expression specificity in different biotypes. Sequence analysis of BtabCSP1 showed significant differences between the two genetically characterized biotypes, B and Q. The B-biotype had a larger number of BtabCSP1 mutations than the Q-biotype. Similar to most other CSPs, BtabCSP1 was more expressed in the head than in the rest of the body. One-step RT-PCR and qPCR analysis on total messenger RNA showed that biotype-Q had higher BtabCSP1 expression levels than biotype-B. Females from a mixed field-population had high levels of BtabCSP1 expression. The interaction of BtabCSP1 with the insecticide thiamethoxam was investigated by analyzing the BtabCSP1 expression levels following exposure to the neonicotinoid, thiamethoxam, in a time/dose-response study. Insecticide exposure increased BtabCSP1 expression (up to tenfold) at 4 and 24 h following 50 or 100 g/ml treatments.