Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites
Pheromone communication is the cornerstone of eusocial insect societies since it mediates the social hierarchy, division of labor, and concerted activities of colony members. The current knowledge on molecular mechanisms of social insect pheromone detection by odorant receptors (ORs) is limited to b...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2025-08-01
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| Series: | eLife |
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/101814 |
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| author | Souleymane Diallo Kateřina Kašparová Josef Šulc Jibin Johny Jan Křivánek Jana Nebesářová David Sillam-Dussès Pavlína Kyjaková Jiří Vondrášek Aleš Machara Ondřej Lukšan Ewald Grosse-Wilde Robert Hanus |
| author_facet | Souleymane Diallo Kateřina Kašparová Josef Šulc Jibin Johny Jan Křivánek Jana Nebesářová David Sillam-Dussès Pavlína Kyjaková Jiří Vondrášek Aleš Machara Ondřej Lukšan Ewald Grosse-Wilde Robert Hanus |
| author_sort | Souleymane Diallo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Pheromone communication is the cornerstone of eusocial insect societies since it mediates the social hierarchy, division of labor, and concerted activities of colony members. The current knowledge on molecular mechanisms of social insect pheromone detection by odorant receptors (ORs) is limited to bees and ants, while no OR was yet functionally characterized in termites, the oldest eusocial insect clade. Here, we present the first OR deorphanization in termites. We selected four OR sequences from the annotated antennal transcriptome of the termite Prorhinotermes simplex (Psammotermitidae), expressed them in Empty Neuron Drosophila, and functionally characterized them using single sensillum recording (SSR). For one of the selected ORs, PsimOR14, we obtained strong responses to the main component of P. simplex trail-following pheromone, the monocyclic diterpene neocembrene. PsimOR14 showed a narrow tuning to neocembrene with only one additional compound out of 67 tested generating non-negligible responses. We report on homology-based modeling and molecular dynamics simulations of ligand binding by PsimOR14. Subsequently, we used SSR in P. simplex workers and identified the olfactory sensillum responding to neocembrene, thus likely expressing PsimOR14. Finally, we demonstrate that PsimOR14 is significantly more expressed in worker antennae compared to soldiers, which correlates with higher sensitivity of workers to neocembrene. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-79dbb458517c4ddbaad396fd10049aa6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj-art-79dbb458517c4ddbaad396fd10049aa62025-08-20T03:47:16ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-08-011310.7554/eLife.101814Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termitesSouleymane Diallo0Kateřina Kašparová1Josef Šulc2Jibin Johny3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2265-5046Jan Křivánek4Jana Nebesářová5David Sillam-Dussès6Pavlína Kyjaková7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0081-3717Jiří Vondrášek8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6066-973XAleš Machara9Ondřej Lukšan10Ewald Grosse-Wilde11Robert Hanus12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-1975Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic; Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicCzech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicLaboratory of Electron Microscopy, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic; Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech RepublicUniversity Sorbonne Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, FranceInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicCzech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicInstitute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicPheromone communication is the cornerstone of eusocial insect societies since it mediates the social hierarchy, division of labor, and concerted activities of colony members. The current knowledge on molecular mechanisms of social insect pheromone detection by odorant receptors (ORs) is limited to bees and ants, while no OR was yet functionally characterized in termites, the oldest eusocial insect clade. Here, we present the first OR deorphanization in termites. We selected four OR sequences from the annotated antennal transcriptome of the termite Prorhinotermes simplex (Psammotermitidae), expressed them in Empty Neuron Drosophila, and functionally characterized them using single sensillum recording (SSR). For one of the selected ORs, PsimOR14, we obtained strong responses to the main component of P. simplex trail-following pheromone, the monocyclic diterpene neocembrene. PsimOR14 showed a narrow tuning to neocembrene with only one additional compound out of 67 tested generating non-negligible responses. We report on homology-based modeling and molecular dynamics simulations of ligand binding by PsimOR14. Subsequently, we used SSR in P. simplex workers and identified the olfactory sensillum responding to neocembrene, thus likely expressing PsimOR14. Finally, we demonstrate that PsimOR14 is significantly more expressed in worker antennae compared to soldiers, which correlates with higher sensitivity of workers to neocembrene.https://elifesciences.org/articles/101814odorant receptorpheromone receptortermitetrail-following pheromonedeorphanizationProrhinotermes simplex |
| spellingShingle | Souleymane Diallo Kateřina Kašparová Josef Šulc Jibin Johny Jan Křivánek Jana Nebesářová David Sillam-Dussès Pavlína Kyjaková Jiří Vondrášek Aleš Machara Ondřej Lukšan Ewald Grosse-Wilde Robert Hanus Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites eLife odorant receptor pheromone receptor termite trail-following pheromone deorphanization Prorhinotermes simplex |
| title | Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites |
| title_full | Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites |
| title_fullStr | Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites |
| title_full_unstemmed | Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites |
| title_short | Identification of the trail-following pheromone receptor in termites |
| title_sort | identification of the trail following pheromone receptor in termites |
| topic | odorant receptor pheromone receptor termite trail-following pheromone deorphanization Prorhinotermes simplex |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/101814 |
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