ena-STUDY-MPICE-03-12-2018-14:52:31:070-50
Developmental and sexual divergence in the olfactory system of the marine insect Clunio marinus
For animals it is essential to locate food, avoid toxins and predators, and to reproduce. These behaviours often depend on the animals` chemosensory abilities and the respective sensory systems are adapted to the species' ecological niche and life history. The intertidal insect Clunio marinus (Diptera: Chironomidae) has tuned its olfactory system to two highly divergent niches. The long-lived larvae forage in a marine environment. During the few hours of terrestrial adult life, males have to find the female pupae floating on the water surface, free the cryptic females from their pupal skin, copulate and carry the females to the oviposition sites. We investigated the chemosensory system of C. marinus larvae, adult males and adult females at the morphological and molecular level. The larvae have a well-developed olfactory system, but olfactory gene expression only partially overlaps with that of adults, likely reflecting their marine vs. terrestrial lifestyles. The olfactory system of the short-lived adults is simple, displaying no glomeruli in the antennal lobes. The female olfactory system is particularly reduced in terms of number of antennal annuli and sensilla, olfactory brain centre size and gene expression. We found hints for a pheromone detection system in males, including large trichoid sensilla and upregulated LUSH.
For animals it is essential to locate food, avoid toxins and predators, and to reproduce. These behaviours often depend on the animals` chemosensory abilities and the respective sensory systems are adapted to the species' ecological niche and life history. The intertidal insect Clunio marinus (Diptera: Chironomidae) has tuned its olfactory system to two highly divergent niches. The long-lived larvae forage in a marine environment. During the few hours of terrestrial adult life, males have to find the female pupae floating on the water surface, free the cryptic females from their pupal skin, copulate and carry the females to the oviposition sites. We investigated the chemosensory system of C. marinus larvae, adult males and adult females at the morphological and molecular level. The larvae have a well-developed olfactory system, but olfactory gene expression only partially overlaps with that of adults, likely reflecting their marine vs. terrestrial lifestyles. The olfactory system of the short-lived adults is simple, displaying no glomeruli in the antennal lobes. The female olfactory system is particularly reduced in terms of number of antennal annuli and sensilla, olfactory brain centre size and gene expression. We found hints for a pheromone detection system in males, including large trichoid sensilla and upregulated LUSH.