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Wanner KW, Nichols AS, Walden KKO, Brockmann A, Luetje CW, Robertson HM. A honey bee odorant receptor for the queen substance 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2007; 104:14383-8. [PMID: 17761794 PMCID: PMC1964862 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0705459104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 141] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin W. Wanner
- *Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801; and
| | - Andrew S. Nichols
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136
| | - Kimberly K. O. Walden
- *Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801; and
| | - Axel Brockmann
- *Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801; and
| | - Charles W. Luetje
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136
| | - Hugh M. Robertson
- *Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801; and
- To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
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103
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Colomb J, Grillenzoni N, Ramaekers A, Stocker RF. Architecture of the primary taste center ofDrosophila melanogasterlarvae. J Comp Neurol 2007; 502:834-47. [PMID: 17436288 DOI: 10.1002/cne.21312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
A simple nervous system combined with stereotypic behavioral responses to tastants, together with powerful genetic and molecular tools, have turned Drosophila larvae into a very promising model for studying gustatory coding. Using the Gal4/UAS system and confocal microscopy for visualizing gustatory afferents, we provide a description of the primary taste center in the larval central nervous system. Essentially, gustatory receptor neurons target different areas of the subesophageal ganglion (SOG), depending on their segmental and sensory organ origin. We define two major and two smaller subregions in the SOG. One of the major areas is a target of pharyngeal sensilla, the other one receives inputs from both internal and external sensilla. In addition to such spatial organization of the taste center, circumstantial evidence suggests a subtle functional organization: aversive and attractive stimuli might be processed in the anterior and posterior part of the SOG, respectively. Our results also suggest less coexpression of gustatory receptors than proposed in prior studies. Finally, projections of putative second-order taste neurons seem to cover large areas of the SOG. These neurons may thus receive multiple gustatory inputs. This suggests broad sensitivity of secondary taste neurons, reminiscent of the situation in mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julien Colomb
- Department of Biology and Program in Neuroscience, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
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104
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Rollmann SM, Yamamoto A, Goossens T, Zwarts L, Callaerts-Végh Z, Callaerts P, Norga K, Mackay TFC, Anholt RRH. The early developmental gene Semaphorin 5c contributes to olfactory behavior in adult Drosophila. Genetics 2007; 176:947-56. [PMID: 17435226 PMCID: PMC1894621 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.106.069781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Behaviors are complex traits influenced by multiple pleiotropic genes. Understanding the mechanisms that give rise to complex behaviors requires an understanding of how variation in transcriptional regulation shapes nervous system development and how variation in brain structure influences an organism's ability to respond to its environment. To begin to address this problem, we used olfactory behavior in Drosophila melanogaster as a model and showed that a hypomorphic transposon-mediated mutation of the early developmental gene Semaphorin-5c (Sema-5c) results in aberrant behavioral responses to the repellant odorant benzaldehyde. We fine mapped this effect to the Sema-5c locus using deficiency mapping, phenotypic reversion through P-element excision, and transgenic rescue. Morphometric analysis of this Sema-5c allele reveals subtle neuroanatomical changes in the brain with a reduction in the size of the ellipsoid body. High-density oligonucleotide expression microarrays identified 50 probe sets with altered transcriptional regulation in the Sema-5c background and quantitative complementation tests identified epistatic interactions between nine of these coregulated genes and the transposon-disrupted Sema-5c gene. Our results demonstrate how hypomorphic mutation of an early developmental gene results in genomewide transcriptional consequences and alterations in brain structure accompanied by profound impairment of adult behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie M. Rollmann
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Akihiko Yamamoto
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tim Goossens
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Liesbeth Zwarts
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Zsuzsanna Callaerts-Végh
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Patrick Callaerts
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Koenraad Norga
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Trudy F. C. Mackay
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Robert R. H. Anholt
- Department of Zoology, Department of Genetics and W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Zoological Institute, Department of Biology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Laboratory of Biological Psychology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium and Children's Hospital, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Corresponding author: W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, Campus Box 7617, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7617. E-mail:
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110
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Niimura Y, Nei M. Evolutionary dynamics of olfactory and other chemosensory receptor genes in vertebrates. J Hum Genet 2006; 51:505-517. [PMID: 16607462 PMCID: PMC1850483 DOI: 10.1007/s10038-006-0391-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 133] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2006] [Accepted: 02/02/2006] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The numbers of functional olfactory receptor (OR) genes in humans and mice are about 400 and 1,000 respectively. In both humans and mice, these genes exist as genomic clusters and are scattered over almost all chromosomes. The difference in the number of genes between the two species is apparently caused by massive inactivation of OR genes in the human lineage and a substantial increase of OR genes in the mouse lineage after the human-mouse divergence. Compared with mammals, fishes have a much smaller number of OR genes. However, the OR gene family in fishes is much more divergent than that in mammals. Fishes have many different groups of genes that are absent in mammals, suggesting that the mammalian OR gene family is characterized by the loss of many group genes that existed in the ancestor of vertebrates and the subsequent expansion of specific groups of genes. Therefore, this gene family apparently changed dynamically depending on the evolutionary lineage and evolved under the birth-and-death model of evolution. Study of the evolutionary changes of two gene families for vomeronasal receptors and two gene families for taste receptors, which are structurally similar, but remotely related to OR genes, showed that some of the gene families evolved in the same fashion as the OR gene family. It appears that the number and types of genes in chemosensory receptor gene families have evolved in response to environmental needs, but they are also affected by fortuitous factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoshihito Niimura
- Department of Bioinformatics, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
| | - Masatoshi Nei
- Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics and Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 328 Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
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