Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangdong, PR China.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 23;8(7):e68836. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068836. Print 2013.
Aedes albopictus is a major vector of dengue and Chikungunya viruses. Olfaction plays a vital role in guiding mosquito behaviors and contributes to their ability to transmit pathogens. Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are abundant in insect olfactory tissues and involved in the first step of odorant reception. While comprehensive descriptions are available of OBPs from Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles gambiae, only a few genes from Ae. albopictus have been reported. In this study, twenty-one putative AalbOBP genes were cloned using their homologues in Ae. aegypti to query an Ae. albopictus partial genome sequence. Two antenna-specific OBPs, AalbOBP37 and AalbOBP39, display a remarkable similarity in their overall folding and binding pockets, according to molecular modeling. Binding affinity assays indicated that AalbOBP37 and AalbOBP39 had overlapping ligand affinities and are affected in different pH condition. Electroantennagrams (EAG) and behavioral tests show that these two genes were involved in olfactory reception. An improved understanding of the Ae. albopictus OBPs is expected to contribute to the development of more efficient and environmentally-friendly mosquito control strategies.
白纹伊蚊是登革热和基孔肯雅热病毒的主要传播媒介。嗅觉在指导蚊子行为和传播病原体方面起着至关重要的作用。气味结合蛋白（OBP）在昆虫嗅觉组织中丰富，并参与气味受体的第一步。虽然已经全面描述了埃及伊蚊、库蚊和疟蚊的 OBP，但仅报道了白纹伊蚊的少数基因。在这项研究中，使用埃及伊蚊的同源物克隆了二十一个推定的 AalbOBP 基因，以查询白纹伊蚊的部分基因组序列。分子建模显示，两个触角特异性 OBP，AalbOBP37 和 AalbOBP39，在整体折叠和结合口袋方面具有显著的相似性。结合亲和力测定表明，AalbOBP37 和 AalbOBP39 具有重叠的配体亲和力，并在不同 pH 条件下受到影响。触角电位图（EAG）和行为测试表明，这两个基因参与嗅觉感受。对白纹伊蚊 OBP 的更好理解有望有助于开发更有效和环保的蚊子控制策略。
