Functional analysis of Ophraella communa Lesage OcomOBP11 in recognition of Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. volatiles

Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) play a critical role in insect survival by facilitating the detection of environmental odors. This study identified and characterized OcomOBP11 in the leaf beetle Ophraella communa Lesage. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that OcomOBP11 belongs to the Minus-C OBP family. Tissue-specific expression analysis revealed that OcomOBP11 showed the highest relative expression in the testis. Functional assays demonstrated that OcomOBP11 has strong binding affinity to 24 of the 26 volatiles from Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., a primary host plant. Molecular docking showed that OcomOBP11 formed hydrophobic interactions with β-caryophyllene, α-pinene, camphene, octanal, and nonanal and hydrogen bonds with octanal and nonanal. RNAi-mediated knockdown of OcomOBP11 significantly reduced the electrophysiological (EAG) response and behavioral preference of O. communa for these ligands. These findings suggest that OcomOBP11 plays an important role in host plant localization, thus providing guidance for future biological invasion control strategies.