Functional evolution of a multigene family: orthologous and paralogous pheromone receptor genes in the turnip moth, Agrotis segetum.

ABSTRACT: Lepidopteran pheromone receptors (PRs), for which orthologies are evident among closely related species, provide an intriguing example of gene family evolution in terms of how new functions may arise. However, only a limited number of PRs have been functionally characterized so far and thus evolutionary scenarios suffer from elements of speculation. In this study we investigated the turnip moth Agrotis segetum, in which female moths produce a mixture of chemically related pheromone components that elicit specific responses from receptor cells on male antennae. We cloned nine A. segetum PR genes and the Orco gene by degenerate primer based RT-PCR. The nine PR genes, named as AsegOR1 and AsegOR3-10, fall into four distinct orthologous clusters of known lepidopteran PRs, of which one contains

SUBMITTER: Zhang DD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3795068 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature