Insect Odor and Taste Receptors

Hallem, Elissa A.; Dahanukar, Anupama; Carlson, John R.

doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.51.051705.113646

Cited by 424 publications

(338 citation statements)

References 155 publications

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“…They are seven-transmembrane domain receptor proteins of about 400 amino acids that bind environmental compounds, thereby transforming the chemical signal into the activation of neurons in the higher processing centres in the brain, which in turn mediate the appropriate behaviour. As in OBPs, these proteins do not seem to be homologous to their functionally similar vertebrate counterparts (Hallem et al, 2006: Nei et al, 2008. In fact, insect ORs have an inverted membrane topology, with the C-terminus at the extracellular surface (Benton et al, 2006), which unlike vertebrate classic G-protein-coupled receptors, appear to form odorantgated cation channels (Sato et al, 2008;Wicher et al, 2008).…”

Section: Insect Chemosensory Gene Family Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular evolution of the major chemosensory gene families in insects

2009

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Chemoreception is a crucial biological process that is essential for the survival of animals. In insects, olfaction allows the organism to recognise volatile cues that allow the detection of food, predators and mates, whereas the sense of taste commonly allows the discrimination of soluble stimulants that elicit feeding behaviours and can also initiate innate sexual and reproductive responses. The most important proteins involved in the recognition of chemical cues comprise moderately sized multigene families. These families include odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) and chemosensory proteins (CSPs), which are involved in peripheral olfactory processing, and the chemoreceptor superfamily formed by the olfactory receptor (OR) and gustatory receptor (GR) families. Here, we review some recent evolutionary genomic studies of chemosensory gene families using the data from fully sequenced insect genomes, especially from the 12 newly available Drosophila genomes. Overall, the results clearly support the birth-and-death model as the major mechanism of evolution in these gene families. Namely, new members arise by tandem gene duplication, progressively diverge in sequence and function, and can eventually be lost from the genome by a deletion or pseudogenisation event. Adaptive changes fostered by environmental shifts are also observed in the evolution of chemosensory families in insects and likely involve reproductive, ecological or behavioural traits. Consequently, the current size of these gene families is mainly a result of random gene gain and loss events. This dynamic process may represent a major source of genetic variation, providing opportunities for FUTURE specific adaptations.

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Section: Insect Chemosensory Gene Family Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular evolution of the major chemosensory gene families in insects

2009

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“…First identified in rats (Buck and Axel, 1991) and Drosophila (Clyne et al, 1999), olfactory and gustatory receptor genes are now being characterized in a range of species as genome sequence data become available (Bargmann, 2006). As a result, the genomics of chemosensory systems can now help to unravel molecular features of chemoreception and to trace the mechanisms of chemical perception from molecules to behaviour (see for review in insects: Rutzler and Zwiebel, 2005;Benton, 2006;Hallem et al, 2006;mammals: Dulac and Torello, 2003;and across phyla: Mombaerts, 1999;Firestein, 2001;Matsunami and Amrein, 2003;Ache and Young, 2005). By linking chemistry and physiology at one end with ecology and evolution at the other, 'chemogenomics' provides new opportunities to dissect the genetic basis of complex behaviour (Fitzpatrick et al, 2005;Kurtovic et al, 2007) and the functional genetic variation that underlies adaptation and reproductive isolation (Moyle, 2005;Clark, 2006;Noor and Feder, 2006;Storz and Hoekstra, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the scent of speciation: the chemosensory system and its role in premating isolation

2008

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Chemosensory speciation is characterized by the evolution of barriers to genetic exchange that involve chemosensory systems and chemical signals. Here, we review some representative studies documenting chemosensory speciation in an attempt to evaluate the importance and the different aspects of the process in nature and to gain insights into the genetic basis and the evolutionary mechanisms of chemosensory trait divergence. Although most studies of chemosensory speciation concern sexual isolation mediated by pheromone divergence, especially in Drosophila and moth species, other chemically based behaviours (habitat choice, pollinator attraction) can also play an important role in speciation and are likely to do so in a wide range of invertebrate and vertebrate species. Adaptive divergence of chemosensory traits in response to factors such as pollinators, hosts and conspecifics commonly drives the evolution of chemical prezygotic barriers. Although the genetic basis of chemosensory speciation remains largely unknown, genomic approaches to chemosensory gene families and to enzymes involved in biosynthetic pathways of signal compounds now provide new opportunities to dissect the genetic basis of these complex traits and of their divergence among taxa.

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“…However, some GR genes are also expressed in the antennae, suggesting that some members of this gene family may have an olfactory function (Hallem et al, 2006). This is further supported by the discovery of two GRs in Drosophila that act in the detection of CO 2 (Yao and Carlson, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…This is further supported by the discovery of two GRs in Drosophila that act in the detection of CO 2 (Yao and Carlson, 2010). GR proteins are highly divergent in sequence, sharing as little as 8% amino acid identity across insect species, and it has been hypothesized that the GR gene family is an ancient chemoreceptor family from which insect OR genes subsequently evolved (Robertson et al, 2003;Hallem et al, 2006;Benton, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…ORs are expressed in the cell membranes of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and are responsible for the detection of odor molecules (Sanchez-Gracia et al, 2009). In general, OSNs will express either ORs or IRs, with the latter mostly tuned to compounds of lower molecular weight (Hallem et al, 2004(Hallem et al, , 2006Benton et al, 2009;Silbering et al, 2011). All analyzed Lepidoptera species possess more OR than IR types (Croset et al, 2010;Koenig et al, 2015;van Schooten et al, 2016), and these play a role in the detection of plant volatiles as well as pheromones (Nakagawa et al, 2005;Grosse-Wilde et al, 2006, 2007Tanaka et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparing the Expression of Olfaction-Related Genes in Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) Adult Females and Larvae from One Flightless and Two Flight-Capable Populations

et al. 2017

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In insects, flight and sophisticated olfactory systems go hand in hand and are essential to survival and evolutionary success. Females of many Lepidopteran species have secondarily lost their flight ability, which may lead to changes in the olfactory capabilities of both larval and adult stages. The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, an important forest pest worldwide, is currently undergoing a diversification process with three recognized subspecies: the Asian gypsy moth (AGM), Lymantria dispar asiatica; the Japanese gypsy moth (JGM), Lymantria dispar japonica; and the European gypsy moth (EGM), Lymantria dispar dispar. Females of EGM populations from North America have lost their flight capacity whereas the JGM and AGM females are flight capable, making this an ideal system to investigate the relationship between flight and olfaction. We used next-generation sequencing to obtain female antennal and larval head capsule transcriptomes in order to (i) investigate the differences in expression of olfaction-related genes among populations; (ii) identify the most similar protein sequences reported for other organisms through a BLAST search, and (iii) establish the phylogenetic relationships of these sequences with respect to other insect species. Using this approach, we identified 115 putative chemosensory genes belonging to five families of olfaction-related genes. A principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the gene-expression patterns of female antennal transcriptomes from different subspecies were more similar to one another than to the larval head capsules of their respective subspecies supporting strong chemosensory differences between the two developmental stages. An analysis of the shared and exclusively expressed genes for three populations shows no evidence that loss of flight affects the number or type of genes being expressed. These results indicate either (a) that loss of flight does not impact the olfactory gene repertoire or (b) that the secondary loss of flight in American EGM populations may be too recent to have caused major changes in the genes being expressed. However, we found higher expression values for Clavijo McCormick et al.Gypsy Moth Olfactory Gene Expression most olfaction-related genes in EGM females, suggesting that differences in transcription rates could be an adaptation of flightless females to their chemical environment. Differences in olfactory genes and their expression in the larvae appear to be unrelated to the flight ability of adult females and are likely adaptations to different ecological pressures.

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Insect Odor and Taste Receptors

Cited by 424 publications

References 155 publications

Molecular evolution of the major chemosensory gene families in insects

Molecular evolution of the major chemosensory gene families in insects

On the scent of speciation: the chemosensory system and its role in premating isolation

Comparing the Expression of Olfaction-Related Genes in Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) Adult Females and Larvae from One Flightless and Two Flight-Capable Populations

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