Identification and characterization of the distinct expression profiles of candidate chemosensory membrane proteins in the antennal transcriptome of Adelphocoris lineolatus (Goeze)

Abstract

Chemosensory membrane proteins, including odorant receptors (ORs), ionotropic receptors (IRs), gustatory receptors (GRs) and sensory neurone membrane proteins (SNMPs), are supposed to be crucial macromolecules in the insect olfactory signal transduction pathway. The alfalfa plant bug Adelphocoris lineolatus (Goeze) (Hemiptera: Miridae) is highly attracted to high-nitrogen or flowering plants and destroys many important agricultural crops. We assembled the antennal transcriptome of A. lineolatus using Illumina sequencing technology and identified a total of 108 transcripts encoding chemosensory membrane proteins (88 ORs, 12 IRs, four GRs and four SNMPs), amongst which 90 candidates appeared to be full length. Subsequently, both semiquantitative reverse transcription PCR and quantitative real-time PCR experiments were performed to investigate their tissue- and sex-biased expression profiles. The results showed that nearly all of the 108 candidate chemosensory membrane protein genes were largely expressed in adult antennae, and some genes additionally displayed significant differences in the expression levels between sexes. The results of our phylogenetic analysis and the detailed tissue- and sex-biased expression characteristics given here provide an important foundation for further understanding of the complex chemoreception system of the alfalfa plant bug and other Hemiptera species, which also could help us use chemosensory membrane proteins as targets to manipulate insect olfactory behaviour and broaden the applications of available tools for insect pest control.

Antennal transcriptome and odorant binding protein expression profiles of an invasive mealybug and its parasitoid

“…It is similar to the case of Triatoma brasiliensis , which has three contigs that encode ORs in the reference transcriptome of female and male. The number of ORs in P. solenopsis is smaller than that in other hemiptera insects, such as Adelphocoris linoleates (88 ORs in the antennae) (Xiao et al., ).…”

Characterization and Comparative Analysis of Olfactory Receptor Co-Receptor Orco Orthologs Among Five Mirid Bug Species

“…The plant mirid species of Lygus spp., Adelphocoris spp., and other species strongly rely on olfactory cues to regulate their chemical perception behaviors. Series of studies on chemoreception of plant mirids were reported such as antennal morphological and electrophysiological characteristic (Chinta et al, 1997 ; Sun et al, 2014a ), putative odorants (Koczor et al, 2012 ; Sun et al, 2013 ), physiological functions of OBPs (Gu et al, 2011 ; Hull et al, 2014 ; Sun et al, 2014b ) and conventional ORs (Yan et al, 2015 ; An et al, 2016 ; Xiao et al, 2016 ; Zhang et al, 2016 ). In the current study, we focused on the evolutionary divergence of Orco orthologs among plant bug species from distinct geographic regions of China.…”

Identification and Expression Analysis of an Olfactory Receptor Gene Family in the Yemma signatus Hsiao (Hemiptera: Berytidae)

“…In this study, 66 ORs were identified in the antennae of Y. signatus. This number is much lower than that for other Hemipteran insects, such as 83 ORs in Nysius ericae (Zhang et al, 2016), 110 ORs in A. lucorum (An et al, 2016), and 88 ORs in Adelphocoris lineolatus (Xiao et al, 2017); however, it is higher than 63 ORs in Sogatella furcifera (He et al, 2015) and 45 ORs in Aphis gossypii (Cao et al, 2014). This may be caused by the adaptation of distinct species to their hosts during evolution.…”