scholarly journals Species-Specific Duplication and Adaptive Evolution of a Candidate Sex Pheromone Receptor Gene in Weather Loach

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1845
Author(s):  
Lei Zhong ◽  
Weimin Wang ◽  
Xiaojuan Cao
Keyword(s):  
Sex Pheromone ◽  
Adaptive Evolution ◽  
Olfactory Epithelium ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Courtship Behavior ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Sequence Length ◽  
Premating Isolation ◽  
Pheromone Receptor ◽  
Species Specific

The release and sensation of sex pheromone play a role in the reproductive success of vertebrates including fish. Previous studies have shown that the weather loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus perceives sex pheromones by olfaction to stimulate courtship behavior. It was speculated that weather loaches use smell to recognize intraspecific mates. However, the identification of loach pheromone receptor has not been reported. By comparative transcriptomic approach, we found that the olfactory receptor gene or114-1 was male-biasedly expressed in the olfactory epithelium of M. anguillicaudatus, M. bipartitus and the closely related species Paramisgurnus dabryanus. This sex-biased expression pattern implicated that or114-1 presumably encoded a sex pheromone receptor in loaches. M. bipartitus and P. dabryanus, like zebrafish, possess one or114-1 only. However, in M. anguillicaudatus, or114-1 has two members: Ma_or114-1a and Ma_or114-1b. Ma_or114-1a, not Ma_or114-1b, showed sex-differential expression in olfactory epithelium. Ma_or114-1b has base insertions that delayed the stop codon, causing the protein sequence length to be extended by 8 amino acids. Ma_or114-1a was subject to positive selection resulting in adaptive amino acid substitutions, which indicated that its ligand binding specificity has probably changed. This adaptive evolution might be driven by the combined effects of sexual selection and reinforcement of premating isolation between the sympatric loach species.

scholarly journals Targeted disruption of a single sex pheromone receptor gene completely abolishes in vivo pheromone response in the silkmoth

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Sakurai ◽  
Hidefumi Mitsuno ◽  
Akihisa Mikami ◽  
Keiro Uchino ◽  
Masashi Tabuchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Pheromone ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Transcription Activator ◽  
Pheromone Receptor ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Sensilla Trichodea ◽  
Moth Species ◽  
Species Specific

Abstract Male moths use species-specific sex pheromones to identify and orientate toward conspecific females. Odorant receptors (ORs) for sex pheromone substances have been identified as sex pheromone receptors in various moth species. However, direct in vivo evidence linking the functional role of these ORs with behavioural responses is lacking. In the silkmoth, Bombyx mori, female moths emit two sex pheromone components, bombykol and bombykal, but only bombykol elicits sexual behaviour in male moths. A sex pheromone receptor BmOR1 is specifically tuned to bombykol and is expressed in specialized olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) in the pheromone sensitive long sensilla trichodea of male silkmoth antennae. Here, we show that disruption of the BmOR1 gene, mediated by transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), completely removes ORN sensitivity to bombykol and corresponding pheromone-source searching behaviour in male moths. Furthermore, transgenic rescue of BmOR1 restored normal behavioural responses to bombykol. Our results demonstrate that BmOR1 is required for the physiological and behavioural response to bombykol, demonstrating that it is the receptor that mediates sex pheromone responses in male silkmoths. This study provides the first direct evidence that a member of the sex pheromone receptor family in moth species mediates conspecific sex pheromone information for sexual behaviour.

scholarly journals Erratum: Targeted disruption of a single sex pheromone receptor gene completely abolishes in vivo pheromone response in the silkmoth

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Sakurai ◽  
Hidefumi Mitsuno ◽  
Akihisa Mikami ◽  
Keiro Uchino ◽  
Masashi Tabuchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Pheromone ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Pheromone Response ◽  
Targeted Disruption ◽  
Pheromone Receptor ◽  
Single Sex

scholarly journals Gene cluster lock after pheromone receptor gene choice

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 3423-3430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Roppolo ◽  
Sarah Vollery ◽  
Chen-Da Kan ◽  
Christian Lüscher ◽  
Marie-Christine Broillet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Cluster ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Pheromone Receptor

scholarly journals Role of sexual imprinting in assortative mating and premating isolation in Darwin’s finches

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (46) ◽  
pp. E10879-E10887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Grant ◽  
B. Rosemary Grant
Keyword(s):  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
Premating Isolation ◽  
Sexual Imprinting ◽  
Darwin's Finches ◽  
Darwin’S Finches ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
Beak Size ◽  
Species Specific

Global biodiversity is being degraded at an unprecedented rate, so it is important to preserve the potential for future speciation. Providing for the future requires understanding speciation as a contemporary ecological process. Phylogenetically young adaptive radiations are a good choice for detailed study because diversification is ongoing. A key question is how incipient species become reproductively isolated from each other. Barriers to gene exchange have been investigated experimentally in the laboratory and in the field, but little information exists from the quantitative study of mating patterns in nature. Although the degree to which genetic variation underlying mate-preference learning is unknown, we provide evidence that two species of Darwin’s finches imprint on morphological cues of their parents and mate assortatively. Statistical evidence of presumed imprinting is stronger for sons than for daughters and is stronger for imprinting on fathers than on mothers. In combination, morphology and species-specific song learned from the father constitute a barrier to interbreeding. The barrier becomes stronger the more the species diverge morphologically and ecologically. It occasionally breaks down, and the species hybridize. Hybridization is most likely to happen when species are similar to each other in adaptive morphological traits, e.g., body size and beak size and shape. Hybridization can lead to the formation of a new species reproductively isolated from the parental species as a result of sexual imprinting. Conservation of sufficiently diverse natural habitat is needed to sustain a large sample of extant biota and preserve the potential for future speciation.

scholarly journals Mutations in a gene encoding the alpha subunit of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae G protein indicate a role in mating pheromone signaling.

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 2484-2493 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Y Jahng ◽  
J Ferguson ◽  
S I Reed
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
G Protein ◽  
Genomic Library ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Protein Activity ◽  
Mating Pheromone ◽  
Pheromone Receptor

Mutations which allowed conjugation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells lacking a mating pheromone receptor gene were selected. One of the genes defined by such mutations was isolated from a yeast genomic library by complementation of a temperature-sensitive mutation and is identical to the gene GPA1 (also known as SCG1), recently shown to be highly homologous to genes encoding the alpha subunits of mammalian G proteins. Physiological analysis of temperature-sensitive gpa1 mutations suggests that the encoded G protein is involved in signaling in response to mating pheromones. Mutational disruption of G-protein activity causes cell-cycle arrest in G1, deposition of mating-specific cell surface agglutinins, and induction of pheromone-specific mRNAs, all of which are responses to pheromone in wild-type cells. In addition, mutants can conjugate without the benefit of mating pheromone or pheromone receptor. A model is presented where the activated G protein has a negative impact on a constitutive signal which normally keeps the pheromone response repressed.

Spatially Organized Response Zones in Rat Olfactory Epithelium

1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 1950-1962 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Scott ◽  
Donna E. Shannon ◽  
Jeff Charpentier ◽  
Lisa M. Davis ◽  
Craig Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Olfactory Epithelium ◽  
Olfactory Receptor ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Receptor Expression ◽  
Response Distribution ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Four Electrodes

Scott, John W., Donna E. Shannon, Jeff Charpentier, Lisa M. Davis, and Craig Kaplan. Spatially organized response zones in rat olfactory epithelium. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 1950–1962, 1997. Electroolfactogram recordings were made with a four-electrode assembly from the olfactory epithelium overlying the endoturbinate bones facing the nasal septum. In this study we tested whether odors of different chemical structures produce maximal responses along longitudinally oriented regions following the olfactory receptor gene expression zones described in the literature. The distribution of responses along the dorsal-to-ventral direction of this epithelium (i.e., across the expression zones) was tested in two types of experiments. In one, four electrodes were fixed along the dorsal-to-ventral axis of one turbinate bone. In the other, four electrodes were placed in corresponding positions on four turbinate bones and moved together up toward the top of the bone. These experiments compared the odorants limonene and α-terpinene, which are simple hydrocarbons, with carvone and menthone, which differ from the hydrocarbons by the presence of ketone groups. All responses were standardized to an amyl acetate or ethyl butyrate standard. The responses to limonene and α-terpinene were often larger for the ventral electrodes. The responses to carvone and menthone were largest for the dorsal electrodes. Intermediate electrodes gave responses that were intermediate in amplitude for these odors. The possibility that direction of air flow caused the observed response distributions was directly tested in experiments with odor nozzles placed in two positions. The relatively larger dorsal responses to carvone and relatively larger ventral responses to limonene were present despite odor nozzle position. We conclude that the responses to this set of odors vary systematically in a fashion parallel to the four gene expression zones. The odorant property that governs this response distribution may be related to the presence of oxygen-containing functional groups. Certain odors evoked larger responses at the intermediate electrode sites than at other sites. Cineole was the best example of this effect. This observation shows that not all oxygen-containing functional groups produce the same effect. Although we cannot exclude other possible mechanisms, these three response gradients may be produced by the four receptor expression zones described for many of the putative olfactory receptor genes. Therefore many of the receptors in each zone may share common properties. It remains to be determined whether this zonal input is significant in central odor processing. However, the correlation of odor chemical properties with the structure of receptor molecules in each zone may provide significant leads to structure-function relationships in vertebrate olfaction.

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