Pheromones modulator

PankiwT. and PageR. E., Jr (2001) Brood pheromone modulates honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) sucrose response thresholds. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 49, 206-213. 

Arbas, E.A., Willis, M.A. Kanzaki, R. 1993. Organization of goal-oriented locomotion Pheromone-modulated flight behavior of moths. In Biological Neural Networks in Invertebrate Neuroethology and Robotics (Ed. by R.D. Beer, R.E. Ritzmann and T. McKenna), pp 159—198. San Diego Academic Press. 

Baker, T.C. 1986. Pheromone-modulated movements of flying moths. In Mechanisms in Insect Olfaction (Ed. by T.L. Payne, C.E.J. Kennedy and M.C. Birch), pp 39-48. Oxford Clarendon Press. 

Mafra-Neto, A. Carde, R.T. 1996. Dissection of the pheromone-modulated flight of moths using single-pulse response as a template. Experientia 52 373—379. 

Bronson F. and Coquelin A. (1980). The modulation of reproduction by priming pheromones in house mice speculations on adaptive function. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 2 (Miiller-Schwarze D. and Silverstein R.M., eds.). Plenum, New York, pp. 243-266. 

Kelliher K Chang Y., Wersinger S. and Baum M. (1998). Sex difference and testosterone modulation of pheromone-induced neuronal fos in the Ferret s main olfactory bulb and hypothalamus. Biol Reprod 59, 1454-1463. 

Regier F. and Goodwin M. (1977). On the chemical and environmental modulation of pheromone release from vertebrate scent marks. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 1 (Muller-Schwarze D. and Mozell M.M., eds.), pp. 115-134. 

The queen is usually reproductively dominant within the colony and uses chemical cues as both primer and releaser pheromones to suppress the production or fecundity of other sexuals, inhibit reproduction by worker castes, modulate reproductive behaviors (e.g., inhibit swarming and orient swarms), attract males, regulate worker tasks and worker ontogeny, and produce host repellents in slave-making species. Considering the importance of queen semiochemicals in social hymenoptera, few queen pheromones have been chemically identified. The queens of most social hymenopteran colonies are attractive to workers, allowing them to be properly tended as well as to facilitate the dissemination of other pheromone cues. However, the retinue pheromone has been chemically identified in very few species. In the 1980s, queen pheromone components were identified in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta [91,92], and in the Pharaoh s ant, Monomoriumpharaonis [93]. 

Claims of commercial manufacturers notwithstanding, it is evident that pheromones do not function as behavioural releasers in humans in the same way as they do in other species. Instead of searching for specific reactions to purported human pheromones, it may be that these chemicals are better described as modulators (Jacob and McClintock 2000) which influence psychological states and, thereby, also influence behaviour in a variety of fashions depending on the situation in which they are experienced, or the accompanying cues. The co-occurrence of different cues can affect their interpretation (Rowe 1999). In humans, we know that odour cues provide non-redundant information about potential mates because, while both visual and olfactory cues may be used to gauge physical attractiveness, the information in each is not equivalent (Roberts, Little, Gosling, Jones, Perrett, Carter and Petrie 2005). 

Finally, we have the subtlest category the modulator pheromones. These pheromones change stimulus sensitivity, salience, and sensorimotor integration in the recipient. These pheromones may determine how a recipient organism will respond to a signal in a specific context. This adds another level of complexity to pheromone action. 

In contrast to the evidence for primers, signalers, and modulators, there is no decent evidence to suggest that there are human releaser pheromones. That is not to argue that there are none but to state that there is no evidence for them at present. Nonetheless, products purported to be human releaser pheromones—specifically sex attractants—are widely available on the Internet. They go by such suggestive names as Scent of Eros, The Edge, Alter-ego, and Pheromone Additive. Many of these products contain either androstenone or androstenol, steroids of unknown influence on the human emotional state. 

For additional insight into the classification of pheromones, see M. K. McClintock, Human pheromones primers, releasers, signalers, or modulators in Reproduction in Context Social and Environmental Influences on Reproduction, K. Wallen and J. E. Schneider, eds, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2000. 

Modulator pheromone a pheromone that changes the sensitivity to a stimulus in the recipient. 

Mice are able actively to seek or avoid priming pheromones that modulate their ovarian cycle and onset of puberty. Peripubertal female mice avoid the urine odor of adult males, known to accelerate puberty in females, and are more attracted to the odor of grouped adult females. This behavior is particularly effective because the active space of the (almost) non-volatile male pheromone is small, and prolonged exposure is required for the effect to occur (Coppola and O Connell, 1988). Likewise, prepubertal female mice do not urinate near urine marks of adult males, while grouped, estrous, and diestrous adult females do. Such behavior may help young females to avoid exposure to male odors until they reach puberty. This way they would be protected from mating too early, and their eventual reproductive success would be enhanced (Drickamer, 1989a). 

Signaling pheromones are animal-produced, interindividual chemicals that modulate behavior in conspecifics. Like visual and auditory signals, they have comparatively rapid effects exchange of signals takes seconds or minutes. (Priming pheromones [Ch. 8], hy comparison, trigger slower endocrine or developmental processes.) The pheromone concept, originally based on insects (Karlson and Luscher, 1959), has been debated for vertebrates, notably mammals (e.g. Beauchamp etal., 1976 Johnston, 2001). Often it is better to use the term body odors to avoid particular assumptions. Now the term pheromones is widely used for vertebrates, without any particularly narrow definition implied. 

The following text discusses first the ability of animals to distinguish and recognize other animals by odors without necessarily exhibiting specific behaviors and then the behaviors that are modulated by status signals. Chapter 7 discusses the sexual and evolutionary implications of signaling pheromones. 

Mafra-Neto, A. and R. T. Cardd. Fine-scale structure of pheromone plumes modulates upwind orientation of flying moths. Nature 369, 142-144 (1994). 

In some species, male variation in response to component ratio offset from the natural blend is somewhat modulated by ambient temperature (Linn et al, 1988). The response specificity of G. molesta and P. gossypiella to off-ratios of pheromone acetate components in a wind tunnel assay was narrower at 20 °C than at 26 °C. In the field, sexual activity in both species occurs at both of these temperatures, depending on time of year. Some field evidence of this phenomenon with P gossypiella appears in the distribution of catch in traps baited with a range of ratios measured at various times of the flight season. Flint et al. (1977) found an evidently narrower response breadth early in the season (when temperatures were cool) compared with late-season responses. In the omnivorous leafroller Platynota stultana, the optimum ratio of its two components for attraction seems to shift with temperature in the... 

Linn, C.E., Campbell, M.G., and Roelofs, W.L. (1988). Temperature modulation of behavioural thresholds controlling male moth sex pheromone response specificity. Physiological Entomology 13 59-67. 

Neuronal signals that descend from the central nervous system (CNS) or ascend through the ventral nerve cord (VNC) can modulate sex pheromone production and/or its release. 

These patterns suggest that under normal conditions, feeding in adult females is modulated in a stage-specific manner, regulating the amount of 3,11-dimethylnonacosane that is available for pheromone production. Early in the vitellogenic cycle JH mediates the metabolism of 3,11-dimethylnonacosane to 3,ll-dimethylnonacosan-2-one and other pheromone components. Later in the reproductive cycle, however, the oocytes sequester large amounts of hydrocarbons... 

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