Zhang Dan-Dan, Wang Hong-Lei, Schultze Anna, Froß Heidrun, Francke Wittko, Krieger Jürgen, Löfstedt Christer
Department of Biology, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden.
Institute of Physiology, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2016 Jan 5;6:18576. doi: 10.1038/srep18576.
How signal diversity evolves under stabilizing selection in a pheromone-based mate recognition system is a conundrum. Female moths produce two major types of sex pheromones, i.e., long-chain acetates, alcohols and aldehydes (Type I) and polyenic hydrocarbons and epoxides (Type II), along different biosynthetic pathways. Little is known on how male pheromone receptor (PR) genes evolved to perceive the different pheromones. We report the identification of the first PR tuned to Type II pheromones, namely ObruOR1 from the winter moth, Operophtera brumata (Geometridae). ObruOR1 clusters together with previously ligand-unknown orthologues in the PR subfamily for the ancestral Type I pheromones, suggesting that O. brumata did not evolve a new type of PR to match the novel Type II signal but recruited receptors within an existing PR subfamily. AsegOR3, the ObruOR1 orthologue previously cloned from the noctuid Agrotis segetum that has Type I acetate pheromone components, responded significantly to another Type II hydrocarbon, suggesting that a common ancestor with Type I pheromones had receptors for both types of pheromones, a preadaptation for detection of Type II sex pheromone.
在基于信息素的配偶识别系统中，信号多样性如何在稳定选择下进化是一个难题。雌蛾沿着不同的生物合成途径产生两种主要类型的性信息素，即长链乙酸酯、醇和醛（I型）以及多烯碳氢化合物和环氧化物（II型）。关于雄性信息素受体（PR）基因如何进化以感知不同的信息素，人们知之甚少。我们报告了第一个被调谐到II型信息素的PR的鉴定，即来自冬尺蛾（Operophtera brumata，尺蛾科）的ObruOR1。ObruOR1与PR亚科中先前配体未知的直系同源物聚集在一起，这些直系同源物针对祖先的I型信息素，这表明冬尺蛾并没有进化出一种新型的PR来匹配新型的II型信号，而是在现有的PR亚科中招募了受体。AsegOR3是先前从具有I型乙酸酯信息素成分的夜蛾Agrotis segetum中克隆的ObruOR1直系同源物，它对另一种II型碳氢化合物有显著反应，这表明具有I型信息素的共同祖先具有两种类型信息素的受体，这是对检测II型性信息素的一种预适应。
