Searching across hundreds of databases

Our searching services are busy right now. Your search will reload in five seconds.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

Sex pheromone biosynthetic pathways are conserved between moths and the butterfly Bicyclus anynana.

Nature communications | 2014

Although phylogenetically nested within the moths, butterflies have diverged extensively in a number of life history traits. Whereas moths rely greatly on chemical signals, visual advertisement is the hallmark of mate finding in butterflies. In the context of courtship, however, male chemical signals are widespread in both groups although they likely have multiple evolutionary origins. Here, we report that in males of the butterfly Bicyclus anynana, courtship scents are produced de novo via biosynthetic pathways shared with females of many moth species. We show that two of the pheromone components that play a major role in mate choice, namely the (Z)-9-tetradecenol and hexadecanal, are produced through the activity of a fatty acyl Δ11-desaturase and two specialized alcohol-forming fatty acyl reductases. Our study provides the first evidence of conservation and sharing of ancestral genetic modules for the production of FA-derived pheromones over a long evolutionary timeframe thereby reconciling mate communication in moths and butterflies.

Pubmed ID: 24862548 RIS Download

Research resources used in this publication

None found

Antibodies used in this publication

None found

Associated grants

None

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


BioEdit (tool)

RRID:SCR_007361

Software tool as biological sequence alignment editor written for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/7 and sequence analysis program. Provides sequence manipulation and analysis options and links to external analysis programs to view and manipulate sequences with simple point and click operations.

View all literature mentions

MAFFT (tool)

RRID:SCR_011811

Software package as multiple alignment program for amino acid or nucleotide sequences. Can align up to 500 sequences or maximum file size of 1 MB. First version of MAFFT used algorithm based on progressive alignment, in which sequences were clustered with help of Fast Fourier Transform. Subsequent versions have added other algorithms and modes of operation, including options for faster alignment of large numbers of sequences, higher accuracy alignments, alignment of non-coding RNA sequences, and addition of new sequences to existing alignments.

View all literature mentions

TBLASTN (tool)

RRID:SCR_011822

Tool to search translated nucleotide databases using a protein query.

View all literature mentions

TBLASTX (tool)

RRID:SCR_011823

A web-based tool used to search translated nucleotide databases using a translated nucleotide query.

View all literature mentions

ExPASy Bioinformatics Resource Portal (tool)

RRID:SCR_012880

Portal which provides access to scientific databases and software tools (i.e., resources) in different areas of life sciences including proteomics, genomics, phylogeny, systems biology, population genetics, transcriptomics etc. It contains resources from many different SIB groups as well as external institutions.

View all literature mentions