Pheromone binding protein

Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) of insects are small helical proteins postulated to contribute to the specificity of the insect’s olfactory system by binding components of the natural pheromone mixtures.

Although our understanding of the biochemical mechanisms of chemoreception in insects has greatly improved after the discovery of olfactory receptors and in spite of the significant amount of experimental information available to date for PBPs, the precise role of these proteins is still unknown.