Keppner Eva M, Prang Madlen, Engel Katharina C, Ayasse Manfred, Stökl Johannes, Steiger Sandra
Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
Institute of for Zoology, University of Regensburg, 93053, Regensburg, Germany.
J Chem Ecol. 2017 Jan;43(1):84-93. doi: 10.1007/s10886-016-0806-8. Epub 2016 Dec 27.
Burying beetles have fascinated scientists for centuries due to their elaborate form of biparental care that includes the burial and defense of a vertebrate carcass, as well as the subsequent feeding of the larvae. However, besides extensive research on burying beetles, one fundamental question has yet to be answered: what cues do males use to discriminate between the sexes? Here, we show in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides that cuticular lipids trigger male mating behavior. Previous chemical analyses have revealed sex differences in cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) composition; however, in the current study, fractionated-guided bioassay showed that cuticular lipids, other than CHCs, elicit copulation. Chemical analyses of the behaviorally active fraction revealed 17 compounds, mainly aldehydes and fatty acid esters, with small quantitative but no qualitative differences between the sexes. Supplementation of males with hexadecanal, the compound contributing most to the statistical separation of the chemical profiles of males and females, did not trigger copulation attempts by males. Therefore, a possible explanation is that the whole profile of polar lipids mediates sex recognition in N. vespilloides.
埋葬虫几个世纪以来一直吸引着科学家，因为它们有着精心的双亲抚育行为，包括埋葬和守护脊椎动物尸体，以及随后喂养幼虫。然而，除了对埋葬虫进行了广泛研究外，一个基本问题仍未得到解答：雄性是利用什么线索来区分两性的？在这里，我们在埋葬虫黄粉葬甲中发现，表皮脂类引发了雄性的交配行为。先前的化学分析揭示了表皮碳氢化合物（CHC）组成上的性别差异；然而，在当前研究中，分级引导生物测定表明，除CHC外，表皮脂类引发了交配行为。对行为活性部分的化学分析揭示了17种化合物，主要是醛类和脂肪酸酯类，两性之间在数量上有细微差异，但在质量上没有差异。用十六醛（对雄性和雌性化学特征的统计分离贡献最大的化合物）补充雄性，并没有引发雄性的交配尝试。因此，一个可能的解释是，极性脂类的整体特征介导了黄粉葬甲的性别识别。
