Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada.
J Chem Ecol. 2010 Feb;36(2):141-7. doi: 10.1007/s10886-010-9741-2. Epub 2010 Feb 11.
House flies, Musca domestica, utilize ephemeral resources such as animal feces for oviposition and development of larval offspring, but they face competition with fungi that colonize the same resource. We predicted that house flies avoid oviposition on feces well-colonized with fungi, thereby reducing fungal competition for larval offspring. Working with fungal isolates from chicken feces, we have previously shown that prior establishment of Phoma spp., Fusarium spp., or Rhizopus spp. on feces significantly reduced oviposition by house flies. Here, we report that, in the headspace volatiles of these three fungal genera, five compounds (dimethyl trisulfide, an unknown, 2-phenylethanol, citronellal, norphytone) elicit responses from house fly antennae. In behavioral bioassays, dimethyl trisulfide and 2-phenylethanol significantly reduced oviposition by house flies. We conclude that fungus-derived volatiles serve as semiochemical cues that help house flies avoid resources colonized with fungal competitors for the development of larval offspring.
家蝇利用如动物粪便等短暂的资源来产卵和孵化幼虫，但它们面临着与同样占据这些资源的真菌竞争的问题。我们预测家蝇会避免在真菌大量滋生的粪便上产卵，从而减少幼虫时期真菌对其的竞争。在前期研究中，我们利用从鸡粪中分离出的真菌，证明在粪便上提前定植 Phoma spp.、Fusarium spp. 或 Rhizopus spp. 会显著减少家蝇的产卵量。在这里，我们报告称，在这三种真菌属的头顶空间挥发物中，有五种化合物（二甲基三硫、一种未知化合物、2-苯乙醇、香茅醛、norphytone）能引起家蝇触角的反应。在行为生物测定中，二甲基三硫和 2-苯乙醇显著减少了家蝇的产卵量。我们的结论是，真菌产生的挥发物可以作为半化学信号，帮助家蝇避免在被真菌竞争者占据的资源上产卵，从而有利于幼虫的发育。
