Chemical communication in scarab beetles: reciprocal behavioral agonist-antagonist activities of chiral pheromones.
Abstract
A novel mechanism of reciprocal behavioral agonist-antagonist activities of enantiomeric pheromones plays a pivotal role in overcoming the signal-to-noise problem derived from the use of a single-constituent pheromone system in scarab beetles. Female Anomala osakana produce (S, Z)-5-(+)-(1-decenyl)oxacyclopentan-2-one, which is highly attractive to males; the response is completely inhibited even by 5% of its antipode. These two enantiomers have reverse roles in the Popillia japonica sex pheromone system. Chiral GC-electroantennographic detector experiments suggest that A. osakana and P. japonica have both R and S receptors that are responsible for behavioral agonist and antagonist responses.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- October 1996
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.93.22.12112
- Bibcode:
- 1996PNAS...9312112L