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Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior
Pheromones play an important role in the behavior, ecology, and evolution of many organisms. The structure of many insect pheromones typically consists of a hydrocarbon backbone, occasionally modified with various functional oxygen groups. Here we show that sex-specific triacylclyerides (TAGs) are b...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3948109/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618898 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01751 |
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author | Chin, Jacqueline SR Ellis, Shane R Pham, Huong T Blanksby, Stephen J Mori, Kenji Koh, Qi Ling Etges, William J Yew, Joanne Y |
author_facet | Chin, Jacqueline SR Ellis, Shane R Pham, Huong T Blanksby, Stephen J Mori, Kenji Koh, Qi Ling Etges, William J Yew, Joanne Y |
author_sort | Chin, Jacqueline SR |
collection | PubMed |
description | Pheromones play an important role in the behavior, ecology, and evolution of many organisms. The structure of many insect pheromones typically consists of a hydrocarbon backbone, occasionally modified with various functional oxygen groups. Here we show that sex-specific triacylclyerides (TAGs) are broadly conserved across the subgenus Drosophila in 11 species and represent a novel class of pheromones that has been largely overlooked. In desert-adapted drosophilids, 13 different TAGs are secreted exclusively by males from the ejaculatory bulb, transferred to females during mating, and function synergistically to inhibit courtship from other males. Sex-specific TAGs are comprised of at least one short branched tiglic acid and a long linear fatty acyl component, an unusual structural motif that has not been reported before in other natural products. The diversification of chemical cues used by desert-adapted Drosophila as pheromones may be related to their specialized diet of fermenting cacti. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01751.001 |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3948109 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-39481092014-03-13 Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior Chin, Jacqueline SR Ellis, Shane R Pham, Huong T Blanksby, Stephen J Mori, Kenji Koh, Qi Ling Etges, William J Yew, Joanne Y eLife Biochemistry Pheromones play an important role in the behavior, ecology, and evolution of many organisms. The structure of many insect pheromones typically consists of a hydrocarbon backbone, occasionally modified with various functional oxygen groups. Here we show that sex-specific triacylclyerides (TAGs) are broadly conserved across the subgenus Drosophila in 11 species and represent a novel class of pheromones that has been largely overlooked. In desert-adapted drosophilids, 13 different TAGs are secreted exclusively by males from the ejaculatory bulb, transferred to females during mating, and function synergistically to inhibit courtship from other males. Sex-specific TAGs are comprised of at least one short branched tiglic acid and a long linear fatty acyl component, an unusual structural motif that has not been reported before in other natural products. The diversification of chemical cues used by desert-adapted Drosophila as pheromones may be related to their specialized diet of fermenting cacti. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01751.001 eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2014-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3948109/ /pubmed/24618898 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01751 Text en Copyright © 2014, Chin et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Biochemistry Chin, Jacqueline SR Ellis, Shane R Pham, Huong T Blanksby, Stephen J Mori, Kenji Koh, Qi Ling Etges, William J Yew, Joanne Y Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
title | Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
title_full | Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
title_fullStr | Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
title_full_unstemmed | Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
title_short | Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
title_sort | sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in drosophila and mediate mating behavior |
topic | Biochemistry |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3948109/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24618898 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01751 |
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