BACKGROUND Trifluoromethyl ketones (TFMKs), structurally related to the pheromones, are good inhibitors of pheromone communication in insects. To determine their activity on Zeuzera pyrina L. (Lepidoptera: Cossidae), a polyphagous pest, the authors have prepared two diunsaturated TFMK analogues of the major (3) and the minor (4) pheromone components, and two monounsaturated ones (5, 6). Their b...

Pheromones trigger reproductive responses of many marine organisms, but little is known about how pheromones mediate mate-finding behavior in the marine environment. This paper investigates whether the tetrapeptide nereithione (cysteine-glutathione disulfide), known to be released by females of the polychaete Nereis succinea to trigger spawning in male N. succinea, can also be used at lower con...

SST2 plays an important role in the sensitivity of yeast cells to pheromone and in recovery from pheromone-induced G1 arrest. Recently, a family of Sst2p homologs that act as GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) for G alpha subunits has been identified. We have identified an interaction between Sst2p and the previously identified Mpt5p by using the two-hybrid system. Loss of Mpt5p function resulte...

Characteristically, social insects are extremely reliant on their use of pheromones to maintain their social activities as a colony unit. This paper describes an on-going project to investigate the possibility of using pheromone communication in a robot swarm. The particular example of pheromone communication considered here was inspired by the queen bee pheromone. This pheromone is only emitte...

In this paper we present a new, non-pheromone-based algorithm inspired by the behaviour of biological bees. The algorithm combines both recruitment and navigation strategies. We investigate whether this new algorithm outperforms pheromone-based algorithms in the task of foraging. Taking into account the results of our experiments, we may conclude that (i) the non-pheromonebased algorithm is sig...

Differences in longevity between sexes is a mysterious yet general phenomenon across great evolutionary distances. To test the roles of responses to environmental cues and sexual behaviors in longevity regulation, we examined Caenorhabditis male lifespan under solitary, grouped, and mated conditions. We find that neurons and the germline are required for male pheromone-dependent male death. Her...

Pheromone responses are highly context dependent. For example, the C. elegans pheromone ascaroside C9 (ascr#3) is repulsive to wild-type hermaphrodites, attractive to wild-type males, and usually neutral to "social" hermaphrodites with reduced activity of the npr-1 neuropeptide receptor gene. We show here that these distinct behavioral responses arise from overlapping push-pull circuits driven ...

The transcriptional activator Ste12p is required for the expression of genes induced by mating pheromone in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identified mutations in the amino-terminal DNA-binding domain of Ste12p that lead to constitutively high-level transcription of pheromone-induced genes. The behaviour of these mutant proteins is consistent with an enhanced DNA-binding ability. Cells ...

Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) are extracellular proteins localized to the chemosensory systems of most terrestrial species. OBPs are expressed by nonneuronal cells and secreted into the fluid bathing olfactory neuron dendrites. Several members have been shown to interact directly with odorants, but the significance of this is not clear. We show that the Drosophila OBP lush is completely devoi...

Juvenile hormone III (JH III) stimulates biosynthesis of the monoterpenoid aggregation pheromone component, ipsdienol, in the anterior midgut of the male pine engraver beetle, Ips pini (Say). To understand better the hormonal regulation of pheromone biosynthesis in this forest pest, and identify JH III-responsive genes, microarrays were prepared and hybridized to cDNA from midguts of JH III-tre...