Odorant receptor structures predict the major female sex pheromone component in a moth.

Overview

1. Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, ICN, Nice, France
2. INRAE, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, IRD, Université Paris Cité, Université Paris Est Créteil Val de Marne, Institut d’Ecologie Et Des Sciences de L’Environnement de Paris (iEES-Paris), Versailles, France
3. Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

Abstract

Background: Species isolation in insects can be ensured by prezygotic barriers, such as species-specific sex pheromone blends that mediate sexual attraction and mate recognition. Yet, sex pheromone compositions of many species remain poorly characterized outside important agricultural pests, because of the necessity to access live insects for pheromone extraction, the difficulties in identifying the production period, and the precise identification of behaviorally relevant compounds in extracts.

Results: Here, we use an odorant receptor (OR)-guided approach to identify the major female sex pheromone component of the previously unexplored lily moth, Spodoptera picta. Genome analysis identified S. picta orthologs of the pheromone receptors OR5 and OR75, previously characterized in S. litura and S. littoralis. Structural modeling of OR5 and OR75 combined with molecular docking predicted conserved ligand binding to (Z,E)-9,11–14:OAc, which was confirmed by functional assays on the ORs. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses of female pheromone gland extracts identified this compound as the major pheromone component, and electrophysiological and behavioral assays further demonstrated that it elicits antennal responses and is sufficient to attract males.

Conclusions: Together, these results establish an innovative receptor structure-based strategy for pheromone identification in non-model species, provide insights into the sexual chemical ecology of S. picta, and clarify the evolutionary pathway by which a unique class of pheromone receptors emerged by gene duplication and gained specificity.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02717-1.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

Datasets cited

• github.com/chemosim-lab/data_phero_spicor5-75, at github.com; found in “Data availability”

Data availability

The experimental data from single-sensillum recordings were deposited on GitHub (https://github.com/chemosim-lab/Data_Phero_SpicOR5-75). Raw data are accessible in this repository, and all other data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

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Version 3, 28 September 2026

• Funding: added Agence Nationale de la Recherche: France2030, ANR-24-RRII-0003, ANR-20, ANR-20-CE20-0003, 15-IDEX-01, ANR‐15‐IDEX‐01; Henan University; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique: ANR-15-IDEX-01; Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 8 authors, 5 keywords, 8 MeSH terms, 48 references.

Cite

This paper

Comte, A., Wei, Z., Li, H., Xing, W.-Z., Moracci, R., Zhang, J., Fiorucci, S., & Jacquin-Joly, E. (2026). Odorant receptor structures predict the major female sex pheromone component in a moth. BMC biology, 24(1), 193. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02717-1

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