Rains Glen C, Utley Samuel L, Lewis W Joe
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, USA.
Biotechnol Prog. 2006 Jan-Feb;22(1):2-8. doi: 10.1021/bp050164p.
A portable, handheld volatile odor detector ("Wasp Hound") that utilizes a computer vision system and Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a parasitoid wasp, as the chemical sensor was created. Five wasps were placed in a test cartridge and placed inside the device. Wasps were either untrained or trained by associative learning to detect 3-octanone, a common fungal volatile chemical. The Wasp Hound sampled air from the headspace of corn samples prepared within the lab and, coupled with Visual Cortex, a software program developed using the LabView graphical programming language, monitored and analyzed wasp behavior. The Wasp Hound, with conditioned wasps, was able to detect 0.5 mg of 3-octanone within a 240 mL glass container filled with feed corn ( approximately 2.6 x 10(-5) mol/L). The Wasp Hound response to the control (corn alone) and a different chemical placed in the corn (0.5 mg of myrcene) was significantly different than the response to the 3-octanone. Wasp Hound results from untrained wasps were significantly different from trained wasps when comparing the responses to 3-octanone. The Wasp Hound may provide a unique method for monitoring grains, peanuts, and tree nuts for fungal growth associated with toxin production, as well as detecting chemicals associated with forensic investigations and plant/animal disease.
一种便携式手持式挥发性气味探测器（“黄蜂猎犬”）被制造出来，它利用计算机视觉系统以及一种寄生蜂——十字黑卵蜂（Microplitis croceipes (Cresson)，膜翅目：茧蜂科）作为化学传感器。五只黄蜂被放置在一个测试盒中并置于该设备内部。黄蜂要么未经训练，要么通过联想学习进行训练以检测3 - 辛酮，一种常见的真菌挥发性化学物质。“黄蜂猎犬”从实验室制备的玉米样品顶空中采集空气，并与使用LabView图形编程语言开发的软件程序“视觉皮层”相结合，监测和分析黄蜂的行为。配备经过训练黄蜂的“黄蜂猎犬”能够在一个装有饲料玉米的240毫升玻璃容器（约2.6×10⁻⁵摩尔/升）中检测到0.5毫克的3 - 辛酮。“黄蜂猎犬”对对照（仅玉米）以及添加到玉米中的另一种化学物质（0.5毫克月桂烯）的反应与对3 - 辛酮的反应有显著差异。在比较对3 - 辛酮的反应时，未经训练黄蜂的“黄蜂猎犬”结果与经过训练黄蜂的结果有显著差异。“黄蜂猎犬”可能为监测谷物、花生和坚果中与毒素产生相关的真菌生长，以及检测与法医调查和动植物疾病相关的化学物质提供一种独特的方法。
