Female and male H. armigera antennal cDNA libraries were constructed for the first time and thousands of
PAC-1 were screened. All 15 olfactory related genes (except HarmOBP9) share the six cysteine residues and display the classical OBP motif. After discrimination and classification, we obtained one GOBP1 gene, one GOBP2 gene, one ABP1 gene, three PBP genes and nine OBP genes from the libraries. Many olfactory genes have been identified in other insects. There are three PBPs reported in Antheraea polyphemus and A. pernyi [23]. In Ascotis selenaria, two PBPs were found and expressed in Escherichia coli [24]. In the silkworm Bombyx mori, three PBPs were submitted to NCBI. In Drosophila melanogaster, more than 50 OBPs have been reported [25], and 21 OBP genes were found in Apis mellifera [26]. Recently, 66 putative OBP
genes in Aedes aegypti and 15 putative OBP genes in the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum were identified by searching the genome with a specific algorithm [13] and [14]. From the NCBI database, HarmPBP1 (AY253870) and HarmPBP2 (EU647241) had already been logged. However, in the present study, two new PBP genes were identified by alignment analysis, and we found that the gene HQ436362 is approximately 108 bp longer than HarmPBP1, and HQ436360 is 48 bp longer than HarmPBP2, although the residual is the same. Thus, we named HQ436362 HarmPBP1, we named HQ436360 HarmPBP2 and we logged them as HQ436362 and HQ436360. It is very important to study the communication relationship between males and females based on the three PBPs identified in the present work.
