AUTHOR=Gao Shan-Shan , Li Rui-Min , Xue Shuang , Zhang Yuan-Chen , Zhang Yong-Lei , Wang Jing-Shun , Zhang Kun-Peng 

TITLE=Odorant Binding Protein C17 Contributes to the Response to Artemisia vulgaris Oil in Tribolium castaneum

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Toxicology

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/toxicology/articles/10.3389/ftox.2021.627470

DOI=10.3389/ftox.2021.627470

ISSN=2673-3080

ABSTRACT=<p>The red flour beetle, <italic>Tribolium castaneum</italic> (<italic>T. castaneum</italic>), generates great financial losses to the grain storage and food processing industries. Previous studies have shown that essential oil (EO) from <italic>Artemisia vulgaris</italic> (<italic>A. vulgaris</italic>) has strong contact toxicity to larvae of the beetle, and odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) contribute to the defense of larvae against <italic>A. vulgaris</italic>. However, the functions of OBPs in insects defending against plant oil is still not clear. Here, expression of one <italic>OBP</italic> gene, <italic>TcOBPC17</italic>, was significantly induced 12–72 h after EO exposure. Furthermore, compared to the control group, RNA interference (RNAi) against <italic>TcOBPC17</italic> resulted in a higher mortality rate after EO treatment, which suggests that <italic>TcOBPC17</italic> involves in the defense against EO and induces a declining sensitivity to EO. In addition, the tissue expression profile analysis revealed that the expression of <italic>TcOBPC17</italic> was more abundant in the metabolic detoxification organs of the head, fat body, epidermis, and hemolymph than in other larval tissue. The expression profile of developmental stages showed that <italic>TcOBPC17</italic> had a higher level in early and late adult stages than in other developmental stages. Taken together, these results suggest that <italic>TcOBPC17</italic> could participate in the sequestration process of exogenous toxicants in <italic>T. castaneum</italic> larvae.</p>