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Abstract BACKGROUND The important wood‐boring pest Batocera horsfieldi has evolved a sensitive olfactory system to locate host plants. Odorant‐binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to play key roles in olfactory recognition. Therefore, exploring the physiological function of OBPs could facilitate a better understanding of insect chemical communications. RESULTS In this research, 36 BhorOBPs genes were identified via transcriptome sequencing of adults' antennae from B. horsfieldi , and most BhorOBPs were predominantly expressed in chemosensory body parts. Through fluorescence competitive binding and fluorescence quenching assays, the antenna‐specific BhorOBP28 was investigated and displayed strong binding affinities forming stable complexes with five volatiles, including (+)‐α‐Pinene, (+)‐Limonene, β‐Pinene, (−)‐Limonene, and (+)‐Longifolene, which could also elicit conformation changes when they were interacting with BhorOBP28. Batocera horsfieldi females exhibited a preference for (−)‐Limonene, and a repellent response to (+)‐Longifolene. Feeding dsOBP19 produced by a bacteria‐expressed system with a newly constructed vector could lead to the knockdown of BhorOBP28 , and could further impair B. horsfieldi attraction to (−)‐Limonene and repellent activity of (+)‐Longifolene. The analysis of site‐directed mutagenesis revealed that Leu7, Leu72, and Phe121 play a vital role in selectively binding properties of BhorOBP28. CONCLUSION By modeling the molecular mechanism of olfactory recognition, these results demonstrate that BhorOBP28 is involved in the chemoreception of B. horsfieldi . The bacterial‐expressed dsRNA delivery system gains new insights into potential population management strategies. Through the olfactory process concluded that discovering novel behavioral regulation and environmentally friendly control options for B. horsfieldi in the future. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.
Yi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.