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Age and Mating Status Do Not Affect Transcript Levels of Odorant Receptor Genes in Male Antennae of Heliothis virescens and Heliothis subflexa

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Abstract

In biological systems, it is expected that gene expression levels generally will correlate with temporally varying physiological and biological needs, and that gene expression levels could regulate biological capabilities. In moth species, male response to female sex pheromones often is affected by moth age and mating status. Odorant receptors (ORs) expressed in neurons within male antennae are critical for detecting the female pheromones. Therefore, we hypothesized that the expression level of these receptor proteins would be affected by age and mating status of male moths. We examined expression levels of two OR genes that are preferentially expressed in the male antennae of Heliothis virescens (HvOR13 and HvOR15) and Heliothis subflexa (HsOR13 and HsOR15). Antennae were dissected from virgin males at 2 h, 1 d, 2 d, 4 d, and 8 d. We also dissected antennae from 4-d-old mated males. We found that age had no effect on expression levels of either OR in either species, except for a small difference in HsOR15 expression between 2 h and 8-d-old virgin males. Furthermore, we found no effect of mating status on expression level of these ORs in either species. We discuss these findings in relationship to studies of age and mating status effects on male electrophysiological and behavioral response to female pheromones, and contrast our results to studies on the effects of age and mating status on gene expression of pheromone receptor proteins and pheromone binding proteins in other moths.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Consuelo Arellano for statistical advice, and Rebekah Powell and Ollie Inglis for technical assistance. This work was funded by the USDA grant 2007-35607-17824 to F.G. and a W.M. Keck Post-doctoral Fellowship to G.M.V.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology and W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Stephanie Soques, Gissella M. Vásquez & Fred Gould

  2. Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Center for Chemical Ecology and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Christina M. Grozinger

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  1. Stephanie Soques
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  2. Gissella M. Vásquez
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  3. Christina M. Grozinger
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Correspondence to Fred Gould.

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Table S1

OR13, OR15, RL31 and RPS3 CT values (mean ± SE) obtained in qRT-PCR analyses performed on H. virescens and H. subflexa male antennae (XLSX 9 kb)

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Soques, S., Vásquez, G.M., Grozinger, C.M. et al. Age and Mating Status Do Not Affect Transcript Levels of Odorant Receptor Genes in Male Antennae of Heliothis virescens and Heliothis subflexa . J Chem Ecol 36, 1226–1233 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-010-9863-6

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