The Insect Olfactory System: A Target for Next-Generation Pest Control Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural pest insects are primarily controlled through the deployment of biological agents, such as natural predators and parasites, techniques such as mating disruption, and the application of broad-spectrum insecticides. Unfortunately, most traditional insecticides have detrimental off-target effects on native species and natural predators, and their effectiveness is disappearing due to increasing resistance in insect populations. As such, there is a tremendous need for the development of novel, species-specific pest control technologies. “Next-generation” insecticides are currently being developed for various pests that target the insect olfactory system, in short because 1) the sense of smell is critical to insect foraging and reproductive biology; 2) insect olfactory proteins are highly divergent between insect species. The present Special Issue will focus on research that aims to exploit the proteins involved in insect olfaction for the development of novel products or techniques that will improve our ability to control agricultural pest insects. Research papers, communications and review articles are welcome. In particular, we encourage contributions which apply advanced molecular techniques to characterize insect olfactory protein function and/or structure, interfere with or inhibit insect olfactory protein function, or utilize insect olfactory proteins in the development of species-specific biosensors.

Dr. Jacob Corcoran
Dr. Melissa Jordan
Dr. Colm Carraher
Guest Editors

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• olfactory system
• odorant receptors
• odorant binding proteins
• odorant degrading enzymes
• antagonist
• inhibitors
• biosensors
• high-throughput screening
• RNAi
• CRISPR