Electroantennographic activity of 21 aliphatic compounds that bind well to a locust odorant‐binding protein

Abstract

Odorants that bind well to odorant‐binding proteins (OBPs) often trigger olfactory responses and have important biological significance. The locust Locusta migratoria (Meyen) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) is a serious agricultural pest. Twenty‐one saturated aliphatic compounds with carbon–oxygen bonds and straight chains of 10–17 carbon atoms bind well to an L. migratoria OBP. In this study, olfactory activities of these aliphatic compounds on L. migratoria adult males were tested by electroantennography (EAG) and comparatively analyzed. Four alcohols (undecanol, dodecanol, tridecanol, and tetradecanol), two ketones (2‐dodecanone and 2‐tridecanone), and two esters (ethyl octanoate and ethyl nonanoate) triggered strong EAG responses, and there was no significant difference between them. The results suggest that the eight compounds are more likely to have important biological significance than the other compounds. Moreover, we found that there is not necessarily a positive correlation between the olfactory activity of odorants and their binding ability with OBP. The study contributes to understanding the odorants with biological significance for L. migratoria and the molecular mechanism of the locust's olfaction.

Roles of insect odorant binding proteins in communication and xenobiotic adaptation

“…A living host of a particular insect can vary greatly based on its life history and feeding guilds, ranging from plants to other animals or humans. Insect OBPs involved in the recognition of host semiochemicals are mainly expressed in the sensillum lymph of the antennae and assist in the adaptation of an insect to their hosts, which has been demonstrated across a diverse range of taxa (131)(132)(133). For example, it was found that An.…”