Researchers find how protein allows insects to detect and respond to pheromones
University of Washington TechTransferrecently licensed software that will give scientists a huge advantagein the fight against disease.The software, known as Rosetta, predicts how proteins fold, informationthat is highly valuable to biological and biomedical researchers.UW Tech Transfer's Digital Ventures licensed Rosetta software withoutcharge to the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), a...Alarm pheromone causes aphids to sprout wings
Chemical communication within insect species is often much more sophisticated than expected. When aphids are attacked by predators such as ladybird beetles, they release an alarm pheromone, (E)-â-farnesene, that has long been known to cause other aphids to walk around or drop from the plant. In a paper soon to appear in Ecology Letters, researchers at the University and Max-Planck-Institut...Researchers discover key gene involved in bark beetle pheromone production
University of Nevada, Reno scientists have ended a decade-long controversy over the process by which bark beetles make pheromones: they manufacture their own monoterpenes ?the fragrant substances plants produce and which are often used in perfumes. It had been thought that insects and other animals were incapable of making these substances. "The goal of our research is ultimately to contro...Past experience of pheromones induces dominant courtship behavior in fruit flies
By investigating the interplay between pheromone signaling and behavior in fruit flies, researchers have begun to understand how an adult fly's earlier experience as a young individual can influence its behavior towards other flies as an adult. In particular, the researchers found that pheromone signals in the context of experience with adult flies can influence how young flies will behave once t...Leading lampreys to slaughter: Pheromone for scourge of Great Lakes identified
For the rats of Hamelin, it was the Pied Piper's tune. For the destructive sea lamprey of the Great Lakes, it's a chemical attractant, or pheromone, released by lamprey larvae living in streambeds. Following the pheromone trail, adults are drawn to streams favorable for spawning. Researchers have long wanted to identify the pheromone so it could be synthesized and used to control the sea lamprey,...Human Pheromones: Fact and Fiction
Valentine’s Day often brings hopes of romance, sometimes spurring aspiring Romeos or Juliets to seek assistance from products marketed as human pheromones. // It’s just wishful thinking, according to George Preti, PhD and Charles Wysocki, PhD, scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. 'We still have much to learn about pheromonal communication in humans. However, bas...Male Pheromones Build Brain Cells in Female Mice
Researchers at the University of Calgary in Alberta have shown that female mice tend to create new brain cells when they detect a dominant male's urine, a discovery that outlines how chemical messages may shape their choice of mates. Dr. Samuel Weiss and his colleagues at the university looked at the effects of sex pheromones, chemicals in urine that many animals use to recognize...