Herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) play a key role in the interactions between plants and herbivorous insects, as HIPVs can promote or deter herbivorous insects’ behavior.  While aphids are common and serious phloem-feeding pests in farmland ecosystems, little is known about how aphids use their sensitive olfactory system to detect HIPVs.  In this study, the antennal transcriptomes of the aphid species Megoura crassicauda were sequenced, and expression level analyses of M. crassicauda odorant receptors (ORs) were carried out.  To investigate the chemoreception mechanisms that M. crassicauda uses to detect HIPVs, we performed in vitro functional studies of the ORs using 11 HIPVs reported to be released by aphid-infested plants.  In total, 54 candidate chemosensory genes were identified, among which 20 genes were ORs.  McraOR20 and McraOR43 were selected for further functional characterization because their homologs in aphids were quite conserved and their expression levels in antennae of M. crassicauda were relatively high.  The results showed that McraOR20 specifically detected cis-jasmone, as did its ortholog ApisOR20 from the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, while McraOR43 did not respond to any of the HIPV chemicals that were tested.  This study characterized the ability of the homologous OR20 receptors in the two aphid species to detect HIPV cis-jasmone, and provides a candidate olfactory target for mediating aphid behaviors.  

Pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, is a serious pest of many different leguminous plants, and it mainly relies on its odorant receptors (Ors) to discriminate among host species.  However, less is known about the role that Ors play in the host plant location.  In this study, we identified a novel conserved odorant receptor clade by phylogenetic analysis, and conducted the functional analysis of ApisOr23 in A. pisum.  The results showed that the homologous Ors from A. pisum, Aphis glycines and Aphis gossypii share 94.28% identity in amino acid sequences.  Moreover, conserved motifs were analyzed using the annotated homologous Or23 from eight aphid species, providing further proof of the high conservation level of the Or23 clade.  According to the tissue expression pattern analysis, ApisOr23 was mainly expressed in the antennae.  Further functional study using a heterologous Xenopus expression system revealed that ApisOr23 was tuned to five plant volatiles, namely trans-2-hexen-1-al, cis-2-hexen-1-ol, 1-heptanol, 4´-ethylacetophenone, and hexyl acetate.  Among them, trans-2-hexen-1-al, which is one of the main volatile organic compounds released from legume plants, activated the highest response of ApisOr23.  Our findings suggest that the conserved Or23 clade in most aphid species might play an important role in host plant detection.