Sex pheromones are intraspecific olfactory signals emitted by one sex to attract a potential mating partner. Behavioural responses to sex pheromones are generally highly stereotyped. However, they can be modulated by experience, as male moths previously exposed to female sex pheromone respond with a lower threshold upon further detection, even after long delays. Here, we address the question of...

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a synthesized putative female pheromone was conducted with regularly menstruating, university women (N=36, mean age=27.8). The pheromone formula was derived from earlier work investigating the underarm secretions of fertile, sexually active, heterosexual women. A vial of either synthesized pheromone or placebo was selected blindly and added to a subje...

Primer pheromones are thought to act in a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates but only a few have been chemically identified. We report that a blend of ten fatty-acid esters found on the cuticles of honeybee larvae, already known as a kairomone, releaser pheromone and primer pheromone, also act as a primer pheromone in the regulation of division of labour among adult workers. Bees in colon...

Fatty acyl-CoA reductases (FARs), the enzymes that catalyse reduction of a fatty acyl-CoA to the corresponding alcohol in insect pheromone biosynthesis, are postulated to play an important role in determining the proportion of each component in the pheromone blend. For the first time, we have isolated and characterized from the Egyptian cotton leaf worm Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctu...

The homothallic, filamentous ascomycete Sordaria macrospora is self-fertile and produces sexual fruiting bodies (perithecia) without a mating partner. Even so, S. macrospora transcriptionally expresses two pheromone-precursor genes (ppg1 and ppg2) and two pheromone-receptor genes (pre1 and pre2). The proteins encoded by these genes are similar to alpha-factor-like and a-factor-like pheromones a...

Electroantennograms (EAGs) of Cydia pomonella (L.), Pandemis pyrusana Kearfott, and Grapholita molesta (Busck) documented the presence and duration of long-lasting peripheral adaptation after pheromone preexposure. Moths of each species were preexposed for 1 h to varying dosages (100 ngÐ100 mg) of the major components of their respective pheromone blends in 1-liter Teßon containers with constan...

Pharaoh's ants organise their foraging system using three types of trail pheromone. All previous foraging models based on specific ant foraging systems have assumed that only a single attractive pheromone is used. Here we present an agent-based model based on trail choice at a trail bifurcation within the foraging trail network of a Pharaoh's ant colony which includes both attractive (positive)...

The mushroom-producing fungus Schizophyllum commune has thousands of mating types defined, in part, by numerous lipopeptide pheromones and their G protein-linked receptors. Compatible combinations of pheromones and receptors encoded by different mating types regulate a pathway of sexual development leading to mushroom formation and meiosis. A complex set of pheromone-receptor interactions maxim...

Male moths are confronted with complex odour mixtures in a natural environment when flying towards a female-emitted sex pheromone source. Whereas synergistic effects of sex pheromones and plant odours have been observed at the behavioural level, most investigations at the peripheral level have shown an inhibition of pheromone responses by plant volatiles, suggesting a potential role of the cent...

Candida albicans can stochastically switch between two phenotypes, white and opaque. Opaque cells are the sexually competent form of C. albicans and therefore undergo efficient polarized growth and mating in the presence of pheromone. In contrast, white cells cannot mate, but are induced - under a specialized set of conditions - to form biofilms in response to pheromone. In this work, we compar...