Studies to determine the effects of gamma-radiation on sex pheromone production in female Tenebtio molitor showed that irradiation of females either as newly emerged or as pharate adults with 3.5 or 7 krad had no significant effect on their sex pheromone activity when compared to that of normals. However, treatment of irradiated insects with a juvenile hormone analogue increased their pheromone...

A sulphate-conjugated bile alcohol, 3,12-diketo-4,6-petromyzonene-24-sulfate (DKPES), was identified using bioassay-guided fractionation from water conditioned with sexually mature male sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). The structure and relative stereochemistry of DKPES was established using spectroscopic data. The electro-olfactogram (EOG) response threshold of DKPES was 10(-7) Molar (M) and ...

Sexual signal evolution is shaped by whether only one or both sexes execute mate choice. When choice considered, the same signalling modality generally inferred for males and females. In noctuid moth Chloridea (Heliothis) virescens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), may be signallers responders, as emit a sex-specific pheromone. Male based on female sex pheromone, perceived via antennae, has been well d...

Acremonium chrysogenum, the fungal producer of the pharmaceutically relevant beta-lactam antibiotic cephalosporin C, is classified as asexual because no direct observation of mating or meiosis has yet been reported. To assess the potential of A. chrysogenum for sexual reproduction, we screened an expressed sequence tag library from A. chrysogenum for the expression of mating type (MAT) genes, w...

UNLABELLED Peptide-based pheromones are used throughout the fungal kingdom for coordinating sexual responses between mating partners. Here, we address the properties and function of Bar1, an aspartyl protease that acts as a "barrier" and antagonist to pheromone signaling in multiple species. Candida albicans Bar1 was purified and shown to exhibit preferential cleavage of native α pheromone over...

The industrially important cellulolytic filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei is the anamorph of the pantropical ascomycete Hypocrea jecorina. H. jecorina CBS999.97 strain undergoes a heterothallic reproductive cycle, and the mating yields fertilized perithecia imbedded in stromata. Asci in the perithecia contain 16 linearly arranged ascospores. Here, we investigated H. jecorina sexual developm...

Interspecific mating can cause severe fitness costs due to the fact that hybrids are often non-viable or less fit. Thus, theory predicts the selection of traits that lessen reproductive interactions between closely related sympatric species. Males of the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis differ from all other Nasonia species by an additional sex pheromone component, but the ecological selectiv...

The genome of the fungus Aspergillus nidulans encodes both of the mating-type regulators of sexuality, thus allowing self-fertility. Pheromone signaling genes are induced during sexual development, as found in outcrossing species, but, surprisingly, the regulators do not control expression of these genes.

The genome sequences of the basidiomycete Agaricomycetes species Coprinopsis cinerea, Laccaria bicolor, Schizophyllum commune, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and Postia placenta, as well as of Cryptococcus neoformans and Ustilago maydis, are now publicly available. Out of these fungi, C. cinerea, S. commune, and U. maydis, together with the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, have been invest...

Sexual reproduction is one of the most fascinating evolutionary outcomes in nature. Sexual development is paradoxical, conferring both benefits and costs, which makes sex an attractive subject in evolutionary biology. In pathogenic microbes, sexual development generates progeny with diverse genetic repertoires and can contribute to create more virulent genotypes. Sexual reproduction is ubiquito...