OBP expression pattern analysis at different phases of the circadian cycle of two fruit flies species of the genus Anastrepha

• Grant number: 18/14177-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Reinaldo Otávio Alvarenga Alves de Brito
• Grantee: Bruno Matheus Gomes
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Fruit flies are pests of great economic importance as they are responsible for major losses in fruit plant crops. An expressive example are flies of the genus Anastrepha, which, although it presents a relevant number of species present in Brazil, divided into 13 groups, has as group of greater economic importance the fraterculus group, in which are contained the main agricultural plagues of this genus, among them A. fraterculus and A. obliqua which have diverged relatively recently. Although these species are still able to cross each other and generate interspecific hybrids, they present some attributes that distinguish them, among them different copulation schedules, oviposition and a certain specificity to different host fruits. Thus, these characteristics may be explained by possible differences in the expression pattern of their odor and pheromone binding proteins (OBPs and PBPs). OBP56d, OBP56h-1, OBP56h-2, OBP57c and OBP99c, and five PBPs genes: OBP19d, OBP28a, OBP69a, OBP83a and OBP84a, along six phases of the circadian cycle of the species in question, in order to establish expression patterns for these proteins. The investigation of the expression pattern of these genes will allow the identification of distinct patterns of expression among species that may be stimulating differences in cut preferences, hosts and the time at which they occur.