Molecular analysis of pheromone perceptions in a mating disruption-resistant moth

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25871089
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Insect science; Plant protection science
• Research Institution: National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
• Principal Investigator: Tabata Jun 国立研究開発法人 農業環境技術研究所, その他部局等, 主任研究員 (20391211)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: フェロモン / 化学受容 / 遺伝変異 / 抵抗性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Mating disruption (MD) is a strategy for reducing the population densities of pests by employing the wide scale application of synthetic copies of sex pheromones to interfere with mate location. A common pheromone constituent of leafrollers, (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate, was used to disturb their mate-finding behavior in tea orchards. The resulting “unnatural” pheromone signals from natural virgin females confused the males’ ability to locate their mates. However, infestations of the smaller tea leafroller, Adoxophyes honmai, began to increase again after this time and the efficacy of the control also declined markedly. To elucidate why the disruptant was inefficacious, we investigated pheromone perception of the resistant moths and uncovered that some receptor genes were down-regulated; the resistant males may locate a pheromone source because of evading "over input" of pheromone from MD.

Free Research Field

化学生態学