High Antennal Expression of <i>CYP6K1</i> and <i>CYP4V2</i> Participate in the Recognition of Alarm Pheromones by <i>Solenopsis invicta</i> Buren

Insects have highly developed olfactory systems in which cytochrome P450s (CYPs) were involved as odor-degrading enzymes throughout the olfactory recognition of odor compounds by insects to avoid continuous stimulation of signaling molecules and thus damage to the olfactory nervous. To understand wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xinyi Jiang, Jiacheng Shen, Peng Lin, Youming Hou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Insects
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/16/1/43
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Summary:Insects have highly developed olfactory systems in which cytochrome P450s (CYPs) were involved as odor-degrading enzymes throughout the olfactory recognition of odor compounds by insects to avoid continuous stimulation of signaling molecules and thus damage to the olfactory nervous. To understand whether the highly expressed CYPs in the antennae play an olfactory function in <i>Solenopsis invicta</i> worker, in this study, we find six highly expressed antennal CYPs from the transcriptome of <i>S. invicta</i>. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis divided them into two families: the CYP3 family (<i>SinvCYP6K1</i>, <i>SinvCYP6K1-1</i>) and the CYP4 family (<i>SinvCYP4C1</i>, <i>SinvCYP4C1-1</i>, <i>SinvCYP4C1-2</i>, <i>SinvCYP4V2</i>). The expression patterns of these six CYPs were analyzed by RT-qPCR, which revealed that <i>SinvCYP6K1</i> and <i>SinvCYP4V2</i> were only highly expressed in the antennae of adult workers. The expression of <i>SinvCYP6K1</i> and <i>SinvCYP4V2</i> in workers was markedly diminished after feeding with dsRNA. The electroantennography (EAG) assay demonstrated that the silencing of either <i>SinvCYP6K1</i> or <i>SinvCYP4V2</i> resulted in a notable reduction in the EAG response of workers to 2-ethyl-3,6(5)-dimethylpyrazine (EDMP). Furthermore, the trajectory behavior assay showed that the worker’s range and speed of movement in response to EDMP significant decreased after the silencing of <i>SinvCYP6K1</i> and <i>SinvCYP4V2</i>. The findings indicated that both <i>SinvCYP6K1</i> and <i>SinvCYP4V2</i> were implicated in the recognition of EDMP by <i>S. invicta</i>.
ISSN:2075-4450