- Xue-Wei Yin1,6,
- Immacolata Iovinella1,
- Roberto Marangoni2,
- Federica Cattonaro3,
- Guido Flamini4,
- Simona Sagona5,
- Long Zhang6,
- Paolo Pelosi1 &
- …
- Antonio Felicioli5
1492Accesses
26Citations
Abstract
Solitary bees are major pollinators but their chemical communication system has been poorly studied. We investigated olfactory coding inOsmia cornuta from two perspectives, chemical and biochemical. We identified (E)-geranyl acetone and 2-hexyl-1,3-dioxolane, specifically secreted by females and males, respectively. A transcriptome analysis of antennae revealed 48 ORs (olfactory receptors), six OBPs (odorant-binding proteins), five CSPs (chemosensory proteins), and a single SNMP (sensory neuron membrane protein). The numbers of ORs and OBPs are much lower than in the honeybee, in particular, C-minus OBPs are lacking in the antennae ofO. cornuta. We have expressed all six OBPs ofO. cornuta and studied their binding specificities. The best ligands are common terpene plant odorants and both volatiles produced by the bee and identified in this work.
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Abbreviations
- OR:
Olfactory receptor
- OBP:
Odorant-binding protein
- CSP:
Chemosensory protein
- SNMP:
Sensory neuron membrane protein
- 1-NPN:
N-Phenyl-1-naphthylamine
- IPTG:
Isopropyl-1-thio-β-d-galacto-pyranoside
- SDS-PAGE:
Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
- GC/MS:
Gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry
- Amel :
Apis mellifera
- Bter :
Bombus terrestris
- Mrot :
Megachile rotundata
- Ocor :
Osmia cornuta
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Acknowledgments
Y. X.-W. thanks the University of Pisa for a 1-year scholarship supporting his visit at the laboratory of A. Felicioli.
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Authors and Affiliations
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Xue-Wei Yin, Immacolata Iovinella & Paolo Pelosi
Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Roberto Marangoni
IGA Technology Services Srl, Udine, Italy
Federica Cattonaro
Department of Pharmacy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Guido Flamini
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Simona Sagona & Antonio Felicioli
Key Lab for Biological Control of the Ministry of Agriculture, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Xue-Wei Yin & Long Zhang
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Correspondence toAntonio Felicioli.
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X.-W. Yin and I. Iovinella have contributed equally to this work.
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Yin, XW., Iovinella, I., Marangoni, R.et al. Odorant-binding proteins and olfactory coding in the solitary beeOsmia cornuta .Cell. Mol. Life Sci.70, 3029–3039 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-013-1308-2
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