Odorant detection in insects involves heterodimers between an odorant receptor (OR) and a conserved seven-transmembrane protein called Or83b, but the exact mechanism of OR signal transduction is unclear. Two recent studies in Nature (Sato et al., 2008; Wicher et al., 2008) now reveal that these OR-Or83b heterodimers form odorant-gated ion channels, revealing a surprising new mode of olfactory transduction.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2008.05.007 | DOI Listing |
Elife
January 2025
Department of Neurosciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, United States.
Sensory experience during developmental critical periods has lifelong consequences for circuit function and behavior, but the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which experience causes these changes are not well understood. The antennal lobe houses synapses between olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and downstream projection neurons (PNs) in stereotyped glomeruli. Many glomeruli exhibit structural plasticity in response to early-life odor exposure, indicating a general sensitivity of the fly olfactory circuitry to early sensory experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chem Ecol
January 2025
Institute of Zoology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053, Regensburg, Germany.
In modern agriculture, control of insect pests is achieved by using insecticides that can also have lethal and sublethal effects on beneficial non-target organisms. Here, we investigate acute toxicity and sublethal effects of four insecticides on the males' sex pheromone response and the female host finding ability of the Drosophila parasitoid Leptopilina heterotoma. The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists acetamiprid, flupyradifurone and sulfoxaflor, as well as the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor dimethoate were applied topically as acetone solutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFeNeuro
January 2025
University of Kassel, 34132 Kassel, Germany.
Evolutionary pressures adapted insect chemosensation to the respective insect's physiological needs and tasks in their ecological niches. Solitary nocturnal moths rely on their acute olfactory sense to find mates at night. Pheromones are detected with maximized sensitivity and high temporal resolution through mechanisms that are mostly unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsect Biochem Mol Biol
January 2025
Hubei Insect Resources Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. Electronic address:
Chemical signals are pivotal in establishing tritrophic interactions among host plants, herbivorous insects, and natural enemies. Previous studies have shown that evolutionarily conserved MaltOBPs in Monochamus alternatus and DhelOBPs in Dastarcus helophoroides contribute to the establishment of pine -pest - natural enemy tritrophic interactions by recognizing the same volatile emitted by the host during crucial developmental stages. We hypothesized that the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of evolutionarily conserved OBPs respectively from pests and enemies are similar.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chem Ecol
January 2025
Department Plant Protection Biology, SLU Alnarp, Lomma, Sweden.
The great diversity of specialist plant-feeding insects suggests that host plant shifts may initiate speciation, even without geographic barriers. Pheromones and kairomones mediate sexual communication and host choice, and the response to these behaviour-modifying chemicals is under sexual and natural selection, respectively. The concept that the interaction of mate signals and habitat cues facilitates reproductive isolation and ecological speciation is well established, while the traits and the underlying sensory mechanisms remain unknown.
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