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Updated: Dec 22, 2025
Electrophysiological Recording from Drosophila Trichoid Sensilla in Response to Odorants of Low Volatility
Published on: July 27, 2017
Characterization of a specific odorant receptor for linalool in the Chinese citrus fly Bactrocera minax (Diptera:
Yipeng Liu1, Zhongyi Cui2, Pinfa Si2
1College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China; State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China.
Abstract:
Insect sensing of odorants plays important roles in various behaviors, including host location, mate attraction, and oviposition site selection. The odorant receptor (OR) is a key protein in insect environmental odor recognition. Most Diptera studies of ORs have focused on Drosophila and mosquitos, so there little known about ORs in the agricultural pest insects Tephritidae. To understand the olfactory recognition mechanism of Bactrocera minax, we sequenced and analyzed 12 B. minax transcriptomes to identify a total of 59 OR genes. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) showed that several BminORs were highly expressed in antennae. Available with a complete open reading frame and expressed in the antennae of both sexes at a higher level than those of other BminORs, BminOR24 was selected for further functional analyses. BminOR24/BminOrco expressed in Xenopus oocytes responded significantly to linalool. The identification of B. minax OR genes lays a foundation for further functional studies of OR genes, and functional characterization of BminOR24 provides insight for improving methods for controlling B. minax, a devastating pest insects.
