Research progress on potential insect behavior control agents originated from plant essential oil targeting olfactory proteins

Insects possess some sensitive and complex olfactory systems, whose operation is inseparable from the participation of a variety of olfactory proteins. These proteins can capture, transport, recognize and degrade external odor molecules, and then regulate a series of physiological behaviors of insects such as feeding, mating, reproduction and alarm. In this paper, the functions and crystal structures of odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and olfactory receptors (ORs) in insect olfactory proteins are reviewed. The interaction modes between odorant binding proteins or olfactory receptors and small ligand molecules were also analyzed according to the reported co-crystal structures. Furthermore, the regulating insect behavior study on the plant essential oils was also summarized in this paper. The review is aimed to provide reference on the development of insect behavior control agents with novel plant essential oil-originated structures as leading ones targeted on insect odorant binding proteins or olfactory receptors.