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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1996 Oct 29;93(22):12112–12115. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.22.12112

Chemical communication in scarab beetles: reciprocal behavioral agonist-antagonist activities of chiral pheromones.

W S Leal 1
PMCID: PMC37951  PMID: 8901541

Abstract

A novel mechanism of reciprocal behavioral agonist-antagonist activities of enantiomeric pheromones plays a pivotal role in overcoming the signal-to-noise problem derived from the use of a single-constituent pheromone system in scarab beetles. Female Anomala osakana produce (S, Z)-5-(+)-(1-decenyl)oxacyclopentan-2-one, which is highly attractive to males; the response is completely inhibited even by 5% of its antipode. These two enantiomers have reverse roles in the Popillia japonica sex pheromone system. Chiral GC-electroantennographic detector experiments suggest that A. osakana and P. japonica have both R and S receptors that are responsible for behavioral agonist and antagonist responses.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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