How signal diversity evolves under stabilizing selection in a pheromone-based mate recognition system is a conundrum. Female moths produce two major types of sex pheromones, i.e., long-chain acetates, alcohols and aldehydes (Type I) and polyenic hydrocarbons and epoxides (Type II), along different biosynthetic pathways. Little is known on how male pheromone receptor (PR) genes evolved to percei...

Animals often use sex pheromones for mate choice and reproduction. As for other signals, the genetic control of the emission and perception of sex pheromones must be tightly coadapted, and yet we still have no worked-out example of how these two aspects interact. Most models suggest that emission and perception rely on separate genetic control. We have identified a Drosophila melanogaster gene,...

Specificity of sex pheromones maintains breeding isolation among three closely related species of spruce-infesting Ips. Hybrids produced in the laboratory were intermediate to the parent species in both attractiveness and response. Pheromones and pheromone receptor types in the hybrids are probably mixtures of those of the parent species.

Molecular identification of sex pheromones in marine crustaceans has proven to be very difficult, and so far no unequivocal identification for any decapod crustacean has been published. Some of these difficulties are common to other animals – pheromones are often blends of molecules at low concentrations. Some difficulties are more specific to marine crustaceans – pheromones are often small and...

Male moths locate their mates using species-specific sex pheromones emitted by conspecific females. One striking feature of sex pheromone recognition in males is the high degree of specificity and sensitivity at all levels, from the primary sensory processes to behavior. The silkmoth Bombyx mori is an excellent model insect in which to decipher the underlying mechanisms of sex pheromone recogni...

Using PET, Savic et al., in this issue of Neuron, found a sexually dimorphic neural response to two putative human pheromones. The specific regions activated combined with the pronounced sex difference depict a pheromonal-type brain response in humans. Here, we preview this finding and suggest that human pheromones exist.