斜纹夜蛾（Spodoptera litura）是我国蔬菜重要害虫之一，该虫4龄后取食量剧增且难以防治，4龄前主要靠农药控制，缺乏绿色高效防治技术。前期研究发现性信息素能够增强植物叶片对斜纹夜蛾低龄幼虫的引诱效果，便于低龄幼虫的诱杀，提升防治效果。斜纹夜蛾成虫中，性信息素结合蛋白与性信息素受体是性信息素识别的主要功能基因，但这些基因在低龄幼虫中均未表达。本项目拟采用昆虫行为学、昆虫生理学、分子生物学、生物信息学、CRISPR/Cas9等技术与方法来研究幼虫识别性信息素的分子机制。挖掘斜纹夜蛾低龄幼虫表达的气味结合蛋白（OBPs）与气味受体（ORs），筛选亲和性信息素的OBPs与对性信息素敏感的ORs，并最终利用基因编辑技术结合昆虫行为学实验验证筛选出的OBPs与ORs的功能，阐明斜纹夜蛾低龄幼虫具有与成虫不同的性信息素感知分子机制，为性信息素在斜纹夜蛾低龄幼虫的防控中的应用提供理论依据。

Spodoptera litura is one of the important vegetable pests in China. The food intake of the insect increases sharply after 4 instars and is difficult to control. Before the 4th instar, it mainly depends on pesticide and lacks green and efficient control technology. Earlier studies found that sex pheromones can enhance the attracting effect of plant leaves on young larvae of Spodoptera litura, facilitate the trapping of young larvae, and improve the control effect. In adults of Spodoptera litura, pheromone binding proteins and pheromone receptors are the main functional genes for sex pheromone recognition, which are not expressed in young larvae. This project intends to use techniques and methods such as insect behavior, insect physiology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, CRISPR/Cas9 to study the molecular mechanism of sex pheromone signals recognition in larval. Mining odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and odorant receptors (ORs) expressed by the young larvae of Spodoptera litura, screening affinity pheromone OBPs and sex pheromone sensitive ORs, and finally using gene editing technology combined insect behavior experiments to verify the functions of the selected OBPs and ORs, and the results is to reveal that the molecular mechanism for sex pheromone perception in the young larvae of Spodoptera litura was different from that of adults, which provided a theoretical basis for the application of sex pheromone in the prevention and control of Spodoptera litura.