Pheromone binding protein is involved in temporal olfactory resolution in the silkmoth

Yusuke Shiota; Takeshi Sakurai; Noriyasu Ando; Stephan Shuichi Haupt; Hidefumi Mitsuno; Takaaki Daimon; Ryohei Kanzaki

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103334

Pheromone binding protein is involved in temporal olfactory resolution in the silkmoth

iScience. 2021 Oct 23;24(11):103334. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103334. eCollection 2021 Nov 19.

Authors

Yusuke Shiota¹, Takeshi Sakurai^{1

2}, Noriyasu Ando¹, Stephan Shuichi Haupt¹, Hidefumi Mitsuno¹, Takaaki Daimon³, Ryohei Kanzaki¹

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan.
² Department of Agricultural Innovation for Sustainability, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1737 Funako, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0034, Japan.
³ Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa Oiwakecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.

Abstract

Male moths utilize spatio-temporal female sex pheromone information to orient toward conspecific females. Pheromones are distributed as discontinuous plumes owing to air turbulence; thus, efficient tracking of intermittent stimuli is expected to require a high temporal resolution. Here, using pheromone binding protein (BmPBP1)-knockout silkmoths, we showed that a loss of functional PBP lowered the temporal sensory resolution of male antennae. This altered temporal resolution resulted in significantly reduced straight walking and longer turning behavior, which respectively occurred when males detected and lost contact with pheromones, indicating that temporal resolution was also lowered at the behavioral level. BmPBP1-knockout males required significantly longer time than wild-type males in locating pheromone sources and female moths. Our results suggest that BmPBP1 plays a critical role in determining olfactory response kinetics. Accordingly, high temporal olfactory and behavioral resolutions, as shaped by PBP, are essential for tracking pheromone plumes and locating females efficiently.

Keywords: Entomology; Molecular mechanism of behavior; Zoology.