Identification of cuticular lipids eliciting interspecific courtship in the German cockroach, Blattella germanica

Die Naturwissenschaften
Dorit EliyahuCoby Schal

Abstract

The cuticular surface of sexually mature females of the German cockroach contains a sex pheromone that, upon contact with the male's antennae, elicits a characteristic species-specific courtship behavior. This female-specific pheromone is a blend of several long-chain methyl ketones, alcohols and aldehydes, all derived from prominent cuticular hydrocarbons found in all life stages of this cockroach. We found that contact with the antennae of 5 out of 20 assayed cockroach species elicited courtship behavior in German cockroach males. The heterospecific courtship-eliciting compounds were isolated by behaviorally guided fractionation of the active crude extracts and compared to the native sex pheromone components. We identified two active compounds from the cuticular extract of the Oriental cockroach, Blatta orientalis -- 11-methylheptacosan-2-one and 27-oxo-11-methylheptacosan-2-one; the former compound was confirmed by synthesis and proved to independently stimulate courtship in German cockroach males. These compounds share common features with, but are distinct from, any of the known contact sex pheromone components. This suggests that sex pheromone reception in the male German cockroach is unusually promiscuous, accepting a wi...Continue Reading

References

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Nov 1, 2007·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Kwang-Chan AhnOee-Sook Park

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Citations

Dec 12, 2012·Journal of Chemical Ecology·Brian M ThompsonDaniel S Gruner
May 19, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Seira Ashley Adams, Neil Durie Tsutsui

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