Biointeractions and Crop Protection Department, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK.
BBCA Onlus, Rome, Italy.
J Insect Sci. 2021 Mar 1;21(2). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/ieaa147.
Animals use olfaction to detect developmentally significant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their local environment. As part of a wider study aiming to demonstrate that the olfactory responses of animals to VOCs can be modified through the creation of a drug-addicted status and association with a selected VOC, we investigated nicotine and tobacco smoke particulate (TSP) extract as possible addictive compounds for male German cockroaches, Blattella germanica (Linnaeus). In feeding experiments using an artificial food stimulus, food treated with TSP extract was preferred over untreated food. Surprisingly, nicotine, which was expected to be the most important addictive tobacco component, did not induce noticeable effects on cockroach behavior. Both TSP extract and nicotine were shown to be phagostimulants. Olfactometry assays that measured odor-mediated insect behavior demonstrated that male B. germanica did not choose TSP-extract-treated food even when attempts were made specifically to train them via this modality. These results support a hypothesis that B. germanica needs to consume TSP-containing food to show a clear preference for this stimulus and that gustatory mechanisms are involved due to compounds present in the TSP extract.
动物利用嗅觉来察觉其周围环境中具有发育意义的挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）。作为一项旨在证明动物对 VOC 的嗅觉反应可以通过创造药物成瘾状态和与选定 VOC 相关联来改变的更广泛研究的一部分，我们研究了尼古丁和烟草烟雾颗粒（TSP）提取物是否可能成为雄性德国蟑螂（Blattella germanica）的成瘾化合物。在使用人工食物刺激的喂养实验中，用 TSP 提取物处理过的食物比未处理的食物更受喜爱。令人惊讶的是，预计是最重要的成瘾烟草成分的尼古丁并没有对蟑螂行为产生明显影响。TSP 提取物和尼古丁都被证明是味觉刺激物。测量气味介导的昆虫行为的嗅觉测定法表明，即使试图通过这种方式专门对雄性 B. germanica 进行训练，它们也不会选择 TSP 提取物处理过的食物。这些结果支持了一个假设，即 B. germanica 需要消耗含有 TSP 的食物才能对这种刺激表现出明显的偏好，并且由于 TSP 提取物中存在的化合物，味觉机制也参与其中。
