Monoclonal antibodies reveal cell-type-specific antigens in the sexually dimorphic olfactory system of Manduca sexta. II. Expression of antigens during postembryonic development

Abstract

Two classes of monoclonal antibodies specific to the olfactory system of Manduca sexta have been isolated: the olfactory-specific antibody (OSA), which specifically recognizes many or all olfactory receptor cells (ORCs) in both males and females, and the male olfactory-specific antibody (MOSA), which stains male-specific receptor cells (principally or sexclusively sex-pheromone receptors present only in antennae of males; Hishinuma et al., 1988). In the investigation reported here, we examined the expression of the antigens during postembryonic development in order to correlate the presence of particular antigens with the status of differentiation of the ORCs or with their acquisition of particular functions. As assessed immunocytochemically, the OSA recognizes certain epithelial cells in the antennal imaginal disk of the fifth-instar larva. Later, during the first 70 hr of adult development, when differentiative cell divisions are occurring in the antennal epithelium to generate ORCs and the other cells that make up olfactory sensilla, no cells are stained. Immediately after this period of mitoses, the OSA immunoreactivity reappears exclusively in the ORCs, which begin to elaborate axons as an early event in their differentiation. On immunoblots, the OSA recognizes specific sets of molecules (distinguished on the basis of their apparent molecular weights): 53,000 and 59,000 Da antigens in the disk epithelial cells in the last-instar larva; 53,000, 59,000, and 66,000 Da antigens in the ORCs from 15 to 60% of metamorphic adult development; and 42,000, 59,000, and 66,000 Da antigens in the ORCs from 60 to 100% of adult development. The MOSA also recognizes a subset of the epithelial cells in the antennal disks in male and female larvae. After disappearing at the pupal molt, MOSA staining is not detected again in the epithelium of the developing male antenna until late in metamorphosis, when electroantennogram responses to female sex pheromones are first detectable. This correlation suggests that the MOSA antigen is expressed during the final maturation of the male-specific receptor cells and may be involved in some way in the olfactory functions of those cells, particularly in the detection of the female sex pheromones.