2022 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 45-49
Fruit fly species in the family Tephritidae include many serious pests. Their life cycle is affected by various semiochemicals. Among them, plant volatiles have remarkable effects on their reproductive and host-finding behaviors. Therefore, the characterization of olfactory receptors that respond to plant volatiles is important to gain insights into the chemosensory mechanisms underlying the adaptation to surrounding environments via chemoreception at the molecular level. Since next-generation sequencers are available, a large number of chemosensory-related genes have been identified in tephritid fruit flies. Characterization of orphan chemosensory receptors is the first step in the elucidation of chemosensory mechanisms. Here, I review the recent progression of functional analyses of olfactory receptors identified from tephritid fruit flies, focusing on our studies on olfactory receptors that respond to plant volatiles.
