Mate recognition functions

Inhibitory controls are found in the glomerular microcircuits which underlie the PB effect, and could represent a common model for the local functions of the AOB (Brennan, 1990 Taylor, 1991). Indeed, its simplicity has led to suggestions that it represents an evolutionary conserved neural subset (Fig. 5.4) for mate-recognition (Keveme, 1990... 

The multifaceted function of cuticular hydrocarbons necessitates further theoretical as well as empirical clarification. For example, their use as both fertility signals and nest-mate recognition pheromones may seem contradictory, since the first function requires within-nest idiosyncrasy, i.e., for discriminating fertile from sterile individuals, while the second function requires within-colony odor uniformity. The response threshold hypothesis (Le Conte and Hefetz, 2008) attempts to resolve this apparent conflict in function, as well as to provide a suitable framework for future experiments to test specific parts of the hypothesis. 

Mate recognition may be an important function of olfactory cues in rodents. Several researchers have reported that rodents prefer the odors of their mates and associate preferentially with their mates (e.g., Newman Halpin, 1988). Whether odors have an important function in mate selection in the prairie vole is less clear. In our study, the odor preferences of females were not consistent with their nesting preferences. The mate preferences of females, which may be regulated independently from social preferences (Carter et al., 1990), were also not consistent with female odor preferences. Quantification of the... 

Volatile sex pheromones provide the first specific information about mating partners. Cuticular contact pheromones provide a second step in species and sex recognition and, in most cases, they function as courtship-inducing pheromones... 

And then there is finally - besides the artificial evolutions of selecting functional nucleic acids for specific interactions with cooperative mates, high-affinic recognitions, and catalytic activities fiom random pools - the evolution of an individual scientific life s work [50], which itself follows decisive stages of the grand process the exploration of early chemical requirements, the development of prebiotic ligand systems, the fixation into the ordered structures of informational inorganic matrix patterns... 

In both the mate choice studies (where mating is prevented) and the habituation-dishabituation test, investigation of an odour source is measured as the behavioural response. However, little attention is usually paid to the functional meaning of investigation in these contexts. We believe that investigation is of limited value in studies of individual recognition, because it is not a specific functional response. 

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