Grosse-Wilde Ewald, Svatos Ales, Krieger Jürgen
Institute of Physiology (230), University of Hohenheim, Garbenstrasse 30, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
Chem Senses. 2006 Jul;31(6):547-55. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjj059. Epub 2006 May 5.
The enormous capacity of the male silkmoth Bombyx mori in recognizing and discriminating bombykol and bombykal is based on distinct sensory neurons in the antennal sensilla hairs. The hydrophobic pheromonal compounds are supposed to be ferried by soluble pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) through the sensillum lymph toward the receptors in the dendritic membrane. We have generated stable cell lines expressing the candidate pheromone receptors of B. mori, BmOR-1 or BmOR-3, and assessed their responses to hydrophobic pheromone compounds dissolved by means of dimethyl sulfoxide. BmOR-1-expressing cells were activated by bombykol but also responded to bombykal, whereas cells expressing BmOR-3 responded to bombykal only. In experiments employing the B. mori PBP, no organic solvent was necessary to mediate an activation of BmOR-1 by bombykol, indicating that the PBP solubilizes the hydrophobic compound. Furthermore, the employed PBP selectively mediated a response to bombykol but not to bombykal, supporting a ligand specificity of PBPs. This study provides evidence that both distinct pheromone receptors and PBPs play an important role in insect pheromone recognition.
雄性家蚕蛾识别和区分蚕蛾醇和蚕蛾醛的巨大能力基于触角感器毛中的不同感觉神经元。疏水性信息素化合物被认为是由可溶性信息素结合蛋白（PBPs）携带，通过感器淋巴运输到树突膜中的受体。我们构建了稳定表达家蚕候选信息素受体BmOR-1或BmOR-3的细胞系，并评估了它们对通过二甲基亚砜溶解的疏水性信息素化合物的反应。表达BmOR-1的细胞被蚕蛾醇激活，但也对蚕蛾醛有反应，而表达BmOR-3的细胞仅对蚕蛾醛有反应。在使用家蚕PBP的实验中，不需要有机溶剂来介导蚕蛾醇对BmOR-1的激活，这表明PBP使疏水性化合物溶解。此外，所使用的PBP选择性地介导了对蚕蛾醇而非蚕蛾醛的反应，支持了PBPs的配体特异性。这项研究提供了证据，表明不同的信息素受体和PBPs在昆虫信息素识别中都起着重要作用。
