Identification of putative chemosensory receptor genes from yellow peach moth Conogethes punctiferalis (Guenee) antennae transcriptome

The yellow peach moth, Conogethes punctiferalis, is an extremely important polyphagous insect in Asia. The chemosensory systems of moth play an important role in detecting food, oviposition sites and mate attraction. Several antennal chemosensory receptors are involved in odor detection. Our study aims to identify chemosensory receptor genes for potential applications in behavioral responses of yellow peach moth. By transcriptomic analysis of male and female antennae, 83 candidate chemosensory receptors, including 62 odorant receptors, 11 ionotropic receptors and 10 gustatory receptors were identified. Through Blast and sequence alignment, the highly conserved co-receptor Orco was annotated, eight unigenes clustered into pheromone receptors, and two clustered as sugar receptor. Among the IRs, one unigenes was similar with co-receptors IR25a. Expression levels of 50 odorant receptors were further evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR in antennae. All the ORs tested were detected in antennae and some of which were associated with sex-biased expression. The chemosensory receptors identified in C. punctiferalis provide a foundational resource for further analysis on olfaction for behavior. The expression profiles of ORs in antennae indicated variant functions in olfactory recognition, and our results provided the possibility for the potential application of semiochemical to control this pest moth.