Female-biased expressed odorant receptor genes differentially tuned to repulsive or attractive plant volatile compounds in the turnip moths

Insects rely on their highly efficient and precise olfactory systems to find suitable mates, host plants and oviposition sites, and adapt to the changing environment. The odorant receptors (ORs) including pheromone receptors (PRs) play a vital role in this process. While extensive studies have been focusing on deorphanization of lepidopteran PR genes, the information on the ligand profiles of general ORs is still sparse. In the present study, we identified a repertoire of 61 ORs including the co-receptor Orco from antennal and ovipositor transcriptomes of the turnip moth Agrotis segetum, which clustered in all the major lepidopteran OR clades. We characterized the function of eight female-biased expressed ORs in Xenopus oocytes and found three ORs differentially tuned to plant volatile compounds that might be repulsive or attractive to the moths. AsegOR13 was broadly tuned to a number of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) while AsegOR20 was specific to citral; AsegOR17 was narrowly tuned to the alcohols, isoamyl alcohol, pentanol and benzyl alcohol, that are potentially attractive to moths. The orthologues of the three ORs in other moth species seem to share the conserved function. Our results support the hypothesis that insects recognize their host plants mostly by detecting the mixture of ubiquitous compounds, instead of taxonomically characteristic host compounds. The combination of narrowly and broadly tuned ORs will ensure both the accuracy of the most important odor signals and the plasticity of the olfactory system to the changes in the environment.