Year: 2022

CORRECT MIXTURES REQUIRED. “In male moths, interneurons will only initiate a behavioural response if the right combination of glomeruli are activated, indicating all pheromone components are present in the right ratios, and there are no pheromone molecules characteristic of other species.” View in LinkedIn

VARIETY OF RECEPTORS. “In mammals, which type of chemosensory receptors/olfactory sensory neuron has been coopted to detect the pheromone depends on the molecule: volatile pheromones may be detected by chemosensory neurons in either the main olfactory system or accessory olfactory system. Protein pheromones such as ESP1, ESP22, and darcin are likely detected exclusively by VR2 receptors of the vomeronasal system whereas sulphated steroid pheromones are detected by VR1 receptors. Important amines are detected by trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs).” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

PARTIAL STORY. “In mammals, many receptors have not been matched to their ligands.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

THE NEW OUTLIERS. “Some pheromones bypass the conventional chemosensory systems and instead act on receptors on other neurons or on cells in tissues themselves. These pheromones have been called allohormone pheromones because they act like hormones outside the sender’s body.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

SOCIAL CASTE TRIGGERS. “Honeybee larvae destined to be queens are fed exclusively on royal jelly, which contains a glycoprotein allohormone pheromone, royalactin. This acts on a fat body signaling cascade, resulting in raised juvenile hormone levels. When development is complete, queens are very different from workers: they are larger, have different neural circuits and behaviours, have functioning reproductive systems, and will live ten times as long.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

TROJAN HORSES. “In some species, hormones or other molecules are transferred along with the male’s sperm to the female when mating, causing females to reject other males. These molecules include prostaglandins in the semen of the red-sided garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis and sex peptides in the semen of D. melanogaster.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

PEST CONTROL. “Pheromones have fulfilled their early promise for non-toxic pest control. For example, with sufficient synthetic female sex pheromone released into an apple orchard, male codling moths cannot find the real females to fertilize their eggs (so there are fewer caterpillars, which cause the damage). In contrast to broadly toxic pesticides, the specificity of non-toxic sex pheromones means that environmental impacts are minimised — predators such as spiders and carabid beetles are left unaffected.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

CUSTOMIZATION COSTS. “However, the species-specificity of sex pheromones increases costs as pheromone control has to be developed for each pest. Despite these challenges for commercialization, more than 10 million hectares are protected annually using pheromones.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

FUTURE PEST CONTROLS. “So far, pest moths and beetles have been the main targets. In the future, nematodes and insect vectors of disease might be managed by their pheromones. Lampreys which ravage Great Lake fisheries might soon be lured into traps by their pheromones. Rodent pheromones might one day replace toxic rodenticides.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

SECONDARY GAINS. “Broadcast signals like pheromones can be ‘eavesdropped’. When researchers in California put out traps to fieldtest bark beetle aggregation pheromones (which attract conspecifics of both sexes), they were surprised to also catch 600,000 predatory beetles. It was later found that the predators had evolved olfactory receptors highly sensitive to their prey’s pheromones.” View in LinkedIn