Pheromone receptors (PRs) found in the antennae of male moths play a vital role in the recognition of sex pheromones released by females. The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a notorious invasive pest, but its PRs have not been reported. In this report, six candidate PRs (SfruOR6, 11, 13, 16, 56 and 62) suggested by phylogenetic analysis were cloned, and their tissue–sex expression profiles were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). All six genes except for SfruOR6 were highly and specifically expressed in the antennae, with SfruOR6, 13 and 62 being male-specific, while the other three (SfruOR11, 16 and 56) were male biased, suggesting their roles in sex pheromone perception. A functional analysis by the Xenopus oocyte system further demonstrated that SfruOR13 was highly sensitive to the major sex pheromone component Z9-14:OAc and the pheromone analog Z9,E12-14:OAc, but less sensitive to the minor pheromone component Z9-12:OAc; SfruOR16 responded weakly to pheromone component Z9-14:OAc, but strongly to pheromone analog Z9-14:OH; the other four candidate PRs did not respond to any of the four pheromone components and four pheromone analogs. This study contributes to clarifying the pheromone perception in the FAW, and provides potential gene targets for developing OR-based pest control techniques.

中文翻译：

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秋季粘虫（Spodoptera frugiperda）中性信息素受体的功能表征

在雄蛾的触角中发现的信息素受体（PRs）在识别雌性释放的性信息素中起着至关重要的作用。秋季夜蛾（FAW），Spodoptera frugiperda是一种臭名昭著的入侵害虫，但尚未报道其PR。在本报告中，六周候选的PR（SfruOR6，11，13，16，56和62通过系统发生分析表明）进行克隆，和它们的组织性的表达谱，通过定量实时PCR（qPCR的）来确定。除了所有六种基因SfruOR6在天线是高度特异性表达，用SfruOR6，13和62是男性特异的，而其它三个（SfruOR11，16和56）为男性偏置，这表明在性信息素感知它们的角色。爪蟾的功能分析卵母细胞系统进一步证明，SfruOR13对主要的性信息素成分Z9-14：OAc和信息素类似物Z9，E12-14：OAc高度敏感，但对次要的信息素成分Z9-12：OAc较不敏感。SfruOR16对信息素组分Z9-14：OAc的反应较弱，但对信息素类似物Z9-14：OH的反应却很强。其他四个候选PR对四个信息素成分和四个信息素类似物均无反应。这项研究有助于澄清一汽中的信息素感知，并为开发基于OR的害虫防治技术提供潜在的基因靶标。