Study of Chemoreception in Capnodis tenebrionis L. (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) as an innovative tool in biological control

Insects use chemoreception to interact with the environment through the perception of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that is essential for their survival. Capnodis tenebrionis (Coleoptera, Buprestidae), a pest of Rosaceae family, is attracted by chemical signals emitted by plants. The control of this pest lacks monitoring strategies such as information on insect chemical ecology. The composition of perceived VOCs play an important role in determining the signal specificity for C. tenebrionis repulsion or attraction. To improve the understanding of how VOCs are perceived, putative soluble olfactory proteins involved in chemoreception have been identified from de novo transcriptomes of antennae and whole bodies of C. tenebrionis adult males and females. Transcriptome analysis led to the identification of a putative odorant binding protein (OBP) named CtenOBP7, similar in terms of amino acid sequence to Agrillus mali (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) OBP3, already functionally characterized. CtenOBP7 was cloned, expressed and purified. Interaction of recombinant CtenOBP7 with different plant VOCs was measured by fluorescence spectroscopy. This approach offers guidelines to understand the mechanisms involved in the interaction between plants and insects, in order to define new strategies to control the proliferation of this pest, starting from the study of insect olfactory perception at the molecular level