Identification/deorphanization of olfactory receptor ligands in Heliconius erato

Identification of the olfactory receptors that bind to specific ligands is a time-consuming process. Novel transcriptomic/qPCR techniques such as the DREAM technique (Von Der Weid et al. 2015) show promise for identifying novel olfactory receptor-ligand pairs, yet have not been tested in non-Drosophila insect species. Using two ligands known to provoke electroantennographic responses in Heliconius butterflies, we are evaluating the DREAM technique to (1) attempt to deorphanize the receptors for these ligands and (2) see if the technique works in non-Drosophila (and non-model) species.