Reproductive behavior of the silkmoth is determined by a single pheromone receptor protein
Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 18:30
in Biology & Nature
Pheromone preference, and the initiation of a complex programmed sexual behavior, is determined by the specificity of a single sex pheromone receptor protein expressed in a population of olfactory receptor neurons in the silkmoth. The study provides the first direct proof of the long-held belief that the control of sexual behavior in male moths originates in the chemical specificity of the pheromone receptor proteins expressed in pheromone receptor neurons.