The role of SNMPs in insect olfaction

The sense of smell enables insects to recognize olfactory signals crucial for survival and reproduction. In insects, odorant detection highly depends on the interplay of distinct proteins expressed by specialized olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and associated support cells which are housed together...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cell and tissue research 2021-01, Vol.383 (1), p.21-33
Main Authors: Cassau, Sina, Krieger, Jürgen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Antennae
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Chemoreception
Gene expression
Genomes
Genomics
Human Genetics
Insects
Membrane proteins
Molecular Medicine
Odorant receptors
Olfaction
Olfactory receptor neurons
Olfactory system
Pheromones
Protein binding
Proteins
Proteomics
Review
Sensilla
Sensory neurons
Smell
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Summary:The sense of smell enables insects to recognize olfactory signals crucial for survival and reproduction. In insects, odorant detection highly depends on the interplay of distinct proteins expressed by specialized olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and associated support cells which are housed together in chemosensory units, named sensilla, mainly located on the antenna. Besides odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) and olfactory receptors, so-called sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs) are indicated to play a critical role in the detection of certain odorants. SNMPs are insect-specific membrane proteins initially identified in pheromone-sensitive OSNs of Lepidoptera and are indispensable for a proper detection of pheromones. In the last decades, genome and transcriptome analyses have revealed a wide distribution of SNMP-encoding genes in holometabolous and hemimetabolous insects, with a given species expressing multiple subtypes in distinct cells of the olfactory system. Besides SNMPs having a neuronal expression in subpopulations of OSNs, certain SNMP types were found expressed in OSN-associated support cells suggesting different decisive roles of SNMPs in the peripheral olfactory system. In this review, we will report the state of knowledge of neuronal and non-neuronal members of the SNMP family and discuss their possible functions in insect olfaction.
ISSN:0302-766X
1432-0878
DOI:10.1007/s00441-020-03336-0