Cuticular hydrocarbons as contact sex pheromone in the parasitoid Dibrachys cavus

Rüther, Joachim; Döring, Mathias; Steiner, Sven

doi:10.1111/j.1570-7458.2011.01129.x

Cited by 49 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The non-polar CHCs have been extensively investigated over the past three decades with respect to their role as semiochemicals (Howard, 1993;Singer, 1998;Howard and Blomquist, 2005). A multitude of studies have shown that CHCs are not only involved in the diverse interactions of social insects (Greene and Gordon, 2003;Endler et al, 2004;van Zweden and d'Ettorre, 2010) but also used by many solitary insects as contact stimuli when searching for oviposition sites (Colazza et al, 2007;Rostas and Wolfling, 2009;Darrouzet et al, 2010) or sexual mates (Syvertsen et al, 1995;Sullivan, 2002;Steiner et al, 2005;Steiner et al, 2006;Sugeno et al, 2006;Geiselhardt et al, 2009;Ferveur and Cobb, 2010;Ginzel, 2010;Ruther et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deciphering the signature of cuticular lipids with contact sex pheromone function in a parasitic wasp

Kühbandner

Sperling

Mori³

et al. 2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYThe surface of insects is covered by a complex mixture of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) to prevent desiccation. In many species these lipids also have communicative functions, but often it is unknown which components are crucial for the behavioural response. Furthermore, it is often ignored that polar lipids also occur on the insectsʼ cuticle and might interact with CHCs. In the parasitic wasp Lariophagus distinguendus, CHCs function as a contact sex pheromone eliciting wing-fanning in males. Interestingly, not only females but also newly emerged males have the pheromone, resulting regularly in homosexual courtship. However, males deactivate the pheromone within the first two days after emergence. This deactivation is accompanied by the disappearance of 3-methylheptacosane (3-MeC27) and some minor components from the CHC profile of males. Here we show that 3-MeC27 is a key component of the contact sex pheromone which, however, triggers courtship behaviour only if an olfactory background of other cuticular lipids is present. Males responded to (S)-3-MeC27 enantioselectively when applied to filter paper but on three-dimensional dummies both enantiomers were behaviourally active, suggesting that physical stimuli also play a role in sexual communication of the wasps. Finally, we report that triacylglycerides (TAGs) are also essential components of the pheromone, and present evidence that TAGs actually occur on the cuticle of L. distinguendus. Our data provide novel insights into the semiochemical function of cuticular lipids by showing that the bioactivity of CHCs may be influenced by the stereochemistry and a synergetic interaction with long time ignored TAGs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deciphering the signature of cuticular lipids with contact sex pheromone function in a parasitic wasp

Kühbandner

Sperling

Mori³

et al. 2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…In N. vitripennis, male attraction to females is at least partly related to female-specific cuticular hydrocarbons (Steiner et al 2006). Sex-specific cuticular hydrocarbons also appear to be an important source of mate recognition cues in other Pteromalinae (e.g., Sullivan 2002;Steiner et al 2005Steiner et al , 2007Ruther et al 2011a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Courtship Behavior and Detection of Female Receptivity in the Parasitoid Wasp Urolepis rufipes

2013

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Once a Urolepis rufipes male mounted, the female beat her antennae against his mouth and clypeus. Immediately after he swept his antennae rapidly downward and extruded his mouthparts, her abdomen rose as she opened her genital orifice. Almost simultaneously he backed up for copulation and she folded her antennae against her head. Neither her abdomen rising nor her antennal folding were essential to his backing up as determined from their timing and from experiments in which her abdomen was sealed or her antennae were removed. Females did not open their genital orifice if with a sealed-mouth male; and antennae-removed females did not open even in the few cases where untreated males extruded their mouthparts. Unlike a closely related species, females mounted by sealed-mouth males did not open in response to air from containers of mating pairs.

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“…Thus, many studies have been correlational only, showing statistically significant differences in the amounts and/or types of compounds present, without being able to confirm that any one or any group of these compounds do indeed have a signaling role. Other studies have bioassayed synthesized CHCs to probe the roles of specific compounds, with some success (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). However, this approach is limited by the large number of compounds in CHC extracts so that a single study might require syntheses of numerous standards to assess the functional roles of all possible components.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methyl-branched cuticular hydrocarbons (MBCHs) have been identified or implicated as contact pheromones in a number of insect species (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27), but most studies involving MBCHs have ignored the issue of stereochemistry and used only racemic MBCHs in bioassays to assess function. The linked questions as to whether insects biosynthesize MBCHs enantioselectively and whether insects can discriminate between the stereoisomeric Significance Methyl-branched hydrocarbons (MBCHs) are widely used for inter-and intraspecific communication by insects.…”

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Isolation and determination of absolute configurations of insect-produced methyl-branched hydrocarbons

Bello¹,

McElfresh

Millar

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Although the effects of stereochemistry have been studied extensively for volatile insect pheromones, little is known about the effects of chirality in the nonvolatile methyl-branched hydrocarbons (MBCHs) used by many insects as contact pheromones. MBCHs generally contain one or more chiral centers and so two or more stereoisomeric forms are possible for each structure. However, it is not known whether insects biosynthesize these molecules in high stereoisomeric purity, nor is it known whether insects can distinguish the different stereoisomeric forms of MBCHs. This knowledge gap is due in part to the lack of methods for isolating individual MBCHs from the complex cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) blends of insects, as well as the difficulty in determining the absolute configurations of the isolated MBCHs. To address these deficiencies, we report a straightforward method for the isolation of individual cuticular hydrocarbons from the complex CHC blend. The method was used to isolate 36 pure MBCHs from 20 species in nine insect orders. The absolute stereochemistries of the purified MBCHs then were determined by digital polarimetry. The absolute configurations of all of the isolated MBCHs were determined to be (R) by comparison with a library of synthesized, enantiomerically pure standards, suggesting that the biosynthetic pathways used to construct MBCHs are highly conserved within the Insecta. The development of a straightforward method for isolation of specific CHCs will enable determination of their functional roles by providing pure compounds for bioassays.T he use of chemical signals is highly developed within insects, with semiochemicals mediating a wide variety of inter-and intraspecific behaviors. Volatile pheromones, such as sex and aggregation pheromones, are the most well-known types, but insects also use nonvolatile cuticular lipids as contact pheromones (1-4). The cuticular lipids consist of a complex blend of n-and methyl-branched alkanes, alkenes, and lesser amounts of more polar compounds such as esters and alcohols. The lipid layer acts primarily as a waterproofing barrier (5), but individual lipid components have evolved secondary roles as signals that mediate a variety of behaviors and physiological changes (1, 2, 6). For example, solitary insects use cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) to identify the species and sex of mates (7, 8) whereas, in social insects, CHCs mediate identification of nestmates (9, 10), recognition of castes, and task allocation within the colony (11). Social insect queens also use CHCs to signal fecundity and dominance status within the colony, inhibiting development of workers into reproductives (12)(13)(14).Determining the roles of specific CHCs as signals has been hindered by three interlinked problems. First, CHCs typically consist of a large number of compounds, which can be difficult to isolate in pure form to test their bioactivities. Specifically, CHCs have very similar polarity and so are not separable by liquid chromatography on silica gel or other polar chromatographic m...

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Cuticular hydrocarbons as contact sex pheromone in the parasitoid Dibrachys cavus

Cited by 49 publications

References 41 publications

Deciphering the signature of cuticular lipids with contact sex pheromone function in a parasitic wasp

Deciphering the signature of cuticular lipids with contact sex pheromone function in a parasitic wasp

Courtship Behavior and Detection of Female Receptivity in the Parasitoid Wasp Urolepis rufipes

Isolation and determination of absolute configurations of insect-produced methyl-branched hydrocarbons

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