Click here to close
Hello! We notice that you are using Internet Explorer, which is not supported by Xenbase and may cause the site to display incorrectly.
We suggest using a current version of Chrome,
FireFox, or Safari.
???displayArticle.abstract???
By using a functional genomics approach, we have identified a honey bee [Apis mellifera (Am)] odorant receptor (Or) for the queen substance 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid (9-ODA). Honey bees live in large eusocial colonies in which a single queen is responsible for reproduction, several thousand sterile female worker bees complete a myriad of tasks to maintain the colony, and several hundred male drones exist only to mate. The "queen substance" [also termed the queen retinue pheromone (QRP)] is an eight-component pheromone that maintains the queen's dominance in the colony. The main component, 9-ODA, acts as a releaser pheromone by attracting workers to the queen and as a primer pheromone by physiologically inhibiting worker ovary development; it also acts as a sex pheromone, attracting drones during mating flights. However, the extent to which social and sexual chemical messages are shared remains unresolved. By using a custom chemosensory-specific microarray and qPCR, we identified four candidate sex pheromone Ors (AmOr10, -11, -18, and -170) from the honey bee genome based on their biased expression in drone antennae. We assayed the pheromone responsiveness of these receptors by using Xenopus oocytes and electrophysiology. AmOr11 responded specifically to 9-ODA (EC50=280+/-31 nM) and not to any of the other seven QRP components, other social pheromones, or floral odors. We did not observe any responses of the other three Ors to any of the eight QRP pheromone components, suggesting 9-ODA is the only QRP component that also acts as a long-distance sex pheromone.
Abaffy,
The molecular basis for ligand specificity in a mouse olfactory receptor: a network of functionally important residues.
2007, Pubmed,
Xenbase
Abaffy,
The molecular basis for ligand specificity in a mouse olfactory receptor: a network of functionally important residues.
2007,
Pubmed
,
Xenbase Abaffy,
Functional analysis of a mammalian odorant receptor subfamily.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Xenbase Ayasse,
Mating behavior and chemical communication in the order Hymenoptera.
2001,
Pubmed Benton,
Atypical membrane topology and heteromeric function of Drosophila odorant receptors in vivo.
2006,
Pubmed Biessmann,
Microarray-based survey of a subset of putative olfactory genes in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae.
2005,
Pubmed Bozdech,
Expression profiling of the schizont and trophozoite stages of Plasmodium falciparum with a long-oligonucleotide microarray.
2003,
Pubmed Brockmann,
Beyond 9-ODA: sex pheromone communication in the European honey bee Apis mellifera L.
2006,
Pubmed Brockmann,
Structural differences in the drone olfactory system of two phylogenetically distant Apis species, A. florea and A. mellifera.
2001,
Pubmed Dahanukar,
Insect chemoreception.
2005,
Pubmed Forêt,
Function and evolution of a gene family encoding odorant binding-like proteins in a social insect, the honey bee (Apis mellifera).
2006,
Pubmed Gary,
Chemical Mating Attractants in the Queen Honey Bee.
1962,
Pubmed Hallem,
The molecular basis of odor coding in the Drosophila antenna.
2004,
Pubmed Hallem,
Coding of odors by a receptor repertoire.
2006,
Pubmed Hallem,
Insect odor and taste receptors.
2006,
Pubmed Hansson,
Function and morphology of the antennal lobe: new developments.
2000,
Pubmed Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium,
Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera.
2006,
Pubmed Kamikouchi,
Identification of honeybee antennal proteins/genes expressed in a sex- and/or caste selective manner.
2004,
Pubmed Keeling,
New components of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen retinue pheromone.
2003,
Pubmed Krieger,
Candidate pheromone receptors of the silkmoth Bombyx mori.
2005,
Pubmed Krieger,
Genes encoding candidate pheromone receptors in a moth (Heliothis virescens).
2004,
Pubmed Larsson,
Or83b encodes a broadly expressed odorant receptor essential for Drosophila olfaction.
2004,
Pubmed Liman,
Subunit stoichiometry of a mammalian K+ channel determined by construction of multimeric cDNAs.
1992,
Pubmed
,
Xenbase Livak,
Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2(-Delta Delta C(T)) Method.
2001,
Pubmed Robertson,
The chemoreceptor superfamily in the honey bee, Apis mellifera: expansion of the odorant, but not gustatory, receptor family.
2006,
Pubmed Rützler,
Molecular biology of insect olfaction: recent progress and conceptual models.
2005,
Pubmed Sandoz,
Odour-evoked responses to queen pheromone components and to plant odours using optical imaging in the antennal lobe of the honey bee drone Apis mellifera L.
2006,
Pubmed Slessor,
Pheromone communication in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.).
2005,
Pubmed Vosshall,
An olfactory sensory map in the fly brain.
2000,
Pubmed Wanner,
Female-biased expression of odourant receptor genes in the adult antennae of the silkworm, Bombyx mori.
2007,
Pubmed Wetzel,
Functional expression and characterization of a Drosophila odorant receptor in a heterologous cell system.
2001,
Pubmed
,
Xenbase Wilson,
Eusociality: origin and consequences.
2005,
Pubmed
