Accelerating Ligand Discovery for Insect Odorant Receptors.

ABSTRACT: Odorant receptors (ORs) are main actors of the insects peripheral olfactory system, making them prime targets for pest control through olfactory disruption. Traditional methods employed in the context of chemical ecology for identifying OR ligands rely on analyzing compounds present in the insect's environment or screening molecules with structures similar to known ligands. However, these approaches can be time-consuming and constrained by the limited chemical space they explore. Recent advances in OR structural understanding, coupled with scientific breakthroughs in protein structure prediction, have facilitated the application of Structure-Based Virtual Screening (SBVS) techniques for accelerated ligand discovery. Here, we report the first successful application of SBVS to insect ORs. We

SUBMITTER: Comte A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11900807 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature