Pheromones stereochemistry-bioactivity relationships

It was clear in 1973 that the stereochemistry-bioactivity relationships among pheromones would be elucidated only after successful synthesis of both the pure enantiomers of pheromones. If a synthetic... 

Chiral pheromones whose stereochemistry-bioactivity relationships are diverse and complicated... 

The relationships between stereochemistry and bioactivity among pheromones are diverse and far from straightforward. Organisms utilize chirality to enrich and diversify their communication systems.8,9 It must be emphasized that such diversity could be found only through experiments by using pure pheromone enantiomers of synthetic origin. In this section, several examples will be given to illustrate the diverse stereochemistry-bioactivity relationships. 

By synthesizing pure enantiomers of pheromones, various stereochemistry-pheromone activity relationships could be clarified. For example, in the case of sulcatol (6-methyl-5-hepten-2-ol),both the enantiomers are necessary for bioactivity. For other relationships, please refer to [4-9]. 

Extensive joint works by biologists and chemists revealed that diversity is the keyword of pheromone response. I never dreamed of such diversity when I began my pheromone research. At present, this kind of diversity can be clarified only through experiments. It is therefore a prerequisite to study the relationship between stereochemistry (including cis/trans-isomerism) and bioactivity, if we want to use a pheromone practically. 

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