Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, PO Box 267, Brisbane, Qld, 4000, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 18;9(1):19332. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55778-4.
Tephritid fruit flies are amongst the most significant horticultural pests globally and male chemical lures are important for monitoring and control. Zingerone has emerged as a unique male fruit fly lure that can attract dacine fruit flies that are weakly or non-responsive to methyl eugenol and cuelure. However, the key features of zingerone that mediate this attraction are unknown. As Jarvis's fruit fly, Bactrocera jarvisi (Tryon), is strongly attracted to zingerone, we evaluated the response of B. jarvisi to 37 zingerone analogues in a series of field trials to elucidate the functional groups involved in attraction. The most attractive analogues were alkoxy derivatives, with isopropoxy being the most attractive, followed by ethoxy and trifluoromethoxy analogues. All of the phenolic esters tested were also attractive with the response typically decreasing with increasing size of the ester. Results indicate that the carbonyl group, methoxy group, and phenol of zingerone are key sites for the attraction of B. jarvisi and identify some constraints on the range of structural modifications that can be made to zingerone without compromising attraction. These findings are important for future work in developing and optimising novel male chemical lures for fruit flies.
实蝇是全球最重要的园艺害虫之一，雄性化学引诱剂对于监测和控制至关重要。小豆蔻醇已成为一种独特的雄性实蝇引诱剂，可吸引对甲基丁香酚和肉桂醛反应较弱或无反应的桔小实蝇。然而，介导这种吸引力的小豆蔻醇的关键特征尚不清楚。由于贾维斯氏实蝇（Bactrocera jarvisi（Tryon））对小豆蔻醇有强烈的吸引力，我们在一系列田间试验中评估了 B. jarvisi 对 37 种小豆蔻醇类似物的反应，以阐明参与吸引的功能基团。最具吸引力的类似物是烷氧基衍生物，其中异丙氧基最具吸引力，其次是乙氧基和三氟甲氧基类似物。所有测试的酚酯都具有吸引力，通常随着酯的增大而反应减小。结果表明，小豆蔻醇的羰基、甲氧基和酚是吸引 B. jarvisi 的关键部位，并确定了在不影响吸引力的情况下可以对小豆蔻醇进行结构修饰的范围的一些限制。这些发现对于开发和优化新型雄性化学引诱剂以用于实蝇具有重要意义。
