Speaker
Description
The red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus – RPW) and the American palm weevil (Rhynchophorus palmarum – APW) are major pests that cause significant economic losses to palm crops. These two species use aggregation pheromones to gather for feeding and mating on their host plants, specifically palm trees. Despite their close phylogenetic relationship, RPW and APW are allopatric species that rely on distinct aggregation pheromones: a mix of ferrugineol/ferruginone and rhynchophorol, respectively. To date, only one pheromone receptor, RferOR1, has been characterized in RPW, leaving the molecular basis of pheromone detection unexplored in these two species.
Here, we expand on this knowledge by identifying several additional pheromone receptors in these species. Phylogenetic analyses reveal that these newly identified receptors belong to distinct evolutionary lineages, suggesting multiple independent events of pheromone receptor emergence. To better understand how these receptors recognize their respective pheromone compounds, we employed molecular docking simulations. These in silico approaches provided valuable insights into the structural mechanisms underlying pheromonal recognition and the evolution of pheromone specificity in Rhynchophorus.
Our findings contribute to improve our understanding of pheromone detection in these pests, and establish the foundation for the development of innovative targeted control strategies based on disrupting pheromone receptor functioning.
