Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, 510260, PR China.
Guangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, 510308, PR China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 11;9(1):10032. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46532-x.
The greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella Linnaeus (Lepidoptera: Galleriinae), is a ubiquitous pest of the honeybee, and poses a serious threat to the global honeybee industry. G. mellonella pheromone system is unusual compared to other lepidopterans and provides a unique olfactory model for pheromone perception. To better understand the olfactory mechanisms in G. mellonella, we conducted a transcriptomic analysis on the antennae of both male and female adults of G. mellonella using high-throughput sequencing and annotated gene families potentially involved in chemoreception. We annotated 46 unigenes coding for odorant receptors, 25 for ionotropic receptors, two for sensory neuron membrane proteins, 22 for odorant binding proteins and 20 for chemosensory proteins. Expressed primarily in antennae were all the 46 odorant receptor unigenes, nine of the 14 ionotropic receptor unigenes, and two of the 22 unigenes coding for odorant binding proteins, suggesting their putative roles in olfaction. The expression of some of the identified unigenes were sex-specific, suggesting that they may have important functions in the reproductive behavior of the insect. Identification of the candidate unigenes and initial analyses on their expression profiles should facilitate functional studies in the future on chemoreception mechanisms in this species and related lepidopteran moths.
大蜡螟，GalleriamellonellaLinnaeus（鳞翅目：Gallerinae），是一种普遍存在的蜜蜂害虫，对全球蜜蜂产业构成严重威胁。与其他鳞翅目昆虫相比，G. mellonella 的信息素系统不同，为信息素感知提供了独特的嗅觉模型。为了更好地了解 G. mellonella 的嗅觉机制，我们使用高通量测序对雌雄成虫的触角进行了转录组分析，并注释了可能参与化学感受的基因家族。我们注释了 46 个编码气味受体的基因，25 个编码离子型受体的基因，2 个编码感觉神经元膜蛋白的基因，22 个编码气味结合蛋白的基因和 20 个编码化学感受蛋白的基因。所有 46 个气味受体基因、14 个离子型受体基因中的 9 个和编码气味结合蛋白的 22 个基因中的 2 个主要在触角中表达，这表明它们在嗅觉中具有潜在作用。一些鉴定的基因的表达具有性别特异性，这表明它们可能在昆虫的生殖行为中具有重要功能。候选基因的鉴定和对其表达谱的初步分析，应该有助于未来在该物种和相关鳞翅目飞蛾的化学感受机制方面进行功能研究。
