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Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies

Phlebotomine sand flies employ an elaborate system of pheromone communication wherein males produce pheromones that attract other males to leks (thus acting as an aggregation pheromone) and females to the lekking males (sex pheromone). In addition, the type of pheromone produced varies among populat...

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Autores principales: Hickner, Paul V., Timoshevskaya, Nataliya, Nowling, Ronald J., Labbé, Frédéric, Nguyen, Andrew D., McDowell, Mary Ann, Spiegel, Carolina N., Syed, Zainulabeuddin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7793272/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33370303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008967
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author Hickner, Paul V.
Timoshevskaya, Nataliya
Nowling, Ronald J.
Labbé, Frédéric
Nguyen, Andrew D.
McDowell, Mary Ann
Spiegel, Carolina N.
Syed, Zainulabeuddin
author_facet Hickner, Paul V.
Timoshevskaya, Nataliya
Nowling, Ronald J.
Labbé, Frédéric
Nguyen, Andrew D.
McDowell, Mary Ann
Spiegel, Carolina N.
Syed, Zainulabeuddin
author_sort Hickner, Paul V.
collection PubMed
description Phlebotomine sand flies employ an elaborate system of pheromone communication wherein males produce pheromones that attract other males to leks (thus acting as an aggregation pheromone) and females to the lekking males (sex pheromone). In addition, the type of pheromone produced varies among populations. Despite the numerous studies on sand fly chemical communication, little is known of their chemosensory genome. Chemoreceptors interact with chemicals in an organism’s environment to elicit essential behaviors such as the identification of suitable mates and food sources. Thus, they play important roles during adaptation and speciation. Major chemoreceptor gene families, odorant receptors (ORs), gustatory receptors (GRs) and ionotropic receptors (IRs) together detect and discriminate the chemical landscape. Here, we annotated the chemoreceptor repertoire in the genomes of Lutzomyia longipalpis and Phlebotomus papatasi, major phlebotomine vectors in the New World and Old World, respectively. Comparison with other sequenced Diptera revealed a large and unique expansion where over 80% of the ~140 ORs belong to a single, taxonomically restricted clade. We next conducted a comprehensive analysis of the chemoreceptors in 63 L. longipalpis individuals from four different locations in Brazil representing allopatric and sympatric populations and three sex-aggregation pheromone types (chemotypes). Population structure based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and gene copy number in the chemoreceptors corresponded with their putative chemotypes, and corroborate previous studies that identified multiple populations. Our work provides genomic insights into the underlying behavioral evolution of sexual communication in the L. longipalpis species complex in Brazil, and highlights the importance of accounting for the ongoing speciation in central and South American Lutzomyia that could have important implications for vectorial capacity.
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spelling pubmed-77932722021-01-27 Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies Hickner, Paul V. Timoshevskaya, Nataliya Nowling, Ronald J. Labbé, Frédéric Nguyen, Andrew D. McDowell, Mary Ann Spiegel, Carolina N. Syed, Zainulabeuddin PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article Phlebotomine sand flies employ an elaborate system of pheromone communication wherein males produce pheromones that attract other males to leks (thus acting as an aggregation pheromone) and females to the lekking males (sex pheromone). In addition, the type of pheromone produced varies among populations. Despite the numerous studies on sand fly chemical communication, little is known of their chemosensory genome. Chemoreceptors interact with chemicals in an organism’s environment to elicit essential behaviors such as the identification of suitable mates and food sources. Thus, they play important roles during adaptation and speciation. Major chemoreceptor gene families, odorant receptors (ORs), gustatory receptors (GRs) and ionotropic receptors (IRs) together detect and discriminate the chemical landscape. Here, we annotated the chemoreceptor repertoire in the genomes of Lutzomyia longipalpis and Phlebotomus papatasi, major phlebotomine vectors in the New World and Old World, respectively. Comparison with other sequenced Diptera revealed a large and unique expansion where over 80% of the ~140 ORs belong to a single, taxonomically restricted clade. We next conducted a comprehensive analysis of the chemoreceptors in 63 L. longipalpis individuals from four different locations in Brazil representing allopatric and sympatric populations and three sex-aggregation pheromone types (chemotypes). Population structure based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and gene copy number in the chemoreceptors corresponded with their putative chemotypes, and corroborate previous studies that identified multiple populations. Our work provides genomic insights into the underlying behavioral evolution of sexual communication in the L. longipalpis species complex in Brazil, and highlights the importance of accounting for the ongoing speciation in central and South American Lutzomyia that could have important implications for vectorial capacity. Public Library of Science 2020-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7793272/ /pubmed/33370303 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008967 Text en © 2020 Hickner et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hickner, Paul V.
Timoshevskaya, Nataliya
Nowling, Ronald J.
Labbé, Frédéric
Nguyen, Andrew D.
McDowell, Mary Ann
Spiegel, Carolina N.
Syed, Zainulabeuddin
Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
title Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
title_full Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
title_fullStr Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
title_full_unstemmed Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
title_short Molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
title_sort molecular signatures of sexual communication in the phlebotomine sand flies
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7793272/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33370303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008967
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