Chemosensory system is vitally important for animals to select food. Antifeedants that herbivores encounter can interfere with feeding behavior and exert physiological effects. Few studies have assessed the molecular mechanisms underlying the chemoreception of antifeedants. In this study, we demonstrated that a chemosensory protein (CSP) in Locusta migratoria is involved in detecting an antifeedant. This CSP, LmigEST6 (GenBank Acc. No. AJ973420), we named as LmigCSPIII, expressed in sensory organs where chemosensilla are widely distributed. Fluorescent binding experiments indicated that LmigCSPIII exhibits high binding affinity to α-amylcinnamaldehyde (AMCAL), a natural compound from non-host plant. This compound was subsequently demonstrated to be an effective antifeedant to locusts in feeding bioassay. By injection of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) of LmigCSPIII, we generated LmigCSPIII knockdown locusts. The feeding behaviour assays demonstrated that the LmigCSPIII knockdown locusts had reduced sensitivity to the antifeedant but showed no changes in their physiological development or food consumption. Therefore, we inferred that this chemosensory protein is involved in antifeedant detection.
Keywords: Locusta migratoria; antifeedant; chemosensory protein; feeding behavior; locust.