Shimomura Kenji, Sakita Keito, Terajima Takehito, Tomizawa Motohiro
Department of Chemistry for Life Sciences and Agriculture, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.
J Chem Ecol. 2025 Jan 24;51(1):5. doi: 10.1007/s10886-025-01553-x.
Seed beetles are pernicious pests of leguminous seeds and are distributed globally. They cause great economic losses, particularly in developing countries. Of this genus, the cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus) is the most destructive and common species of this beetle. However, there are no effective and sustainable control strategies available for this species. Nevertheless, sustainable pest management strategies using sex pheromone compounds have been proposed, as C. maculatus uses species-specific sex pheromone signals for pre-mating isolation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the attractive capacity of male C. maculatus after RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene knockdown of olfactory receptor coreceptor (Cmac\Orco). The RNAi effect showed more than 90% reduction in transcripts, and a behavioral bioassay using a Y-tube olfactometer indicated that knocking down males impaired sexual attraction toward females, which would be a useful tool for further screening of target molecules for odorant chemical communication.
豆象是豆科种子的有害害虫，分布于全球。它们造成了巨大的经济损失，尤其是在发展中国家。在这个属中，豇豆象（Callosobruchus maculatus）是这种甲虫中最具破坏性和最常见的物种。然而，目前还没有针对该物种的有效且可持续的控制策略。尽管如此，由于豇豆象利用物种特异性的性信息素信号进行交配前隔离，因此有人提出了使用性信息素化合物的可持续害虫管理策略。因此，本研究旨在研究基于RNA干扰（RNAi）的嗅觉受体共受体（Cmac\Orco）基因敲除后雄性豇豆象的吸引能力。RNAi效应显示转录本减少了90%以上，使用Y型嗅觉仪进行的行为生物测定表明，敲除雄性个体对雌性的性吸引力受损，这将是进一步筛选气味化学通讯目标分子的有用工具。
