Final Exam Flashcards
What is AMP?
Adenosine monophosphate (derived from ATP) is an important intracellular chemical messenger
What are semiochemicals?
Chemicals used for communication
What is the most well-known semiochemical?
Pheromones
What are pheromones?
Volatile substances that influence behaviour or development of other members of the same species
Do insects use pheromones?
Yes! Pheromones are the predominat means of communication among insects (especially social insects)
How are pheromones usually distributed?
Pheromones are usually air bourne (travelling slowly)
What is the first type of pheromone used in insects
Sex Pheromones
What are the two types of sex pheromones?
Sex attraction pheromones (used for arousal and produced by only one sex) and courtship pheromones (employed prior to mating)
Which gender usually produces sex attraction pheromone?
Usually the female does to arouse the male
How can courtship pheromones be manipulated?
Can be used for pest control or prey capture
What is the second type of insect pheromone?
Trail pheromones
What are trail pheromones?
Short-lived pheromones used to lay down an odour trial for members to follow (not species specific). They can be detected at very low concentrations
What is the third type of insect pheromone?
Alarm Pheromones
What are alarm pheromones?
Used by very social insects. Volatile, non-persistent compounds that are readily dispersed. Attract aggressive workers for attack and defense
What is the fourth type of insect pheromone?
Aggregation pheromones
What are aggregation pheromones?
Causes both sexes of an insect to swarm and gather towards the source of the pheromone.
What are the applications of aggregation pheromones?
Added protection against predators, using a scarce food source, bringing together of members of the same species, increased mating opportunity, and hibernation
What is the fifth type of insect pheromone?
Spacing Pheromones
What are spacing pheromones?
Pheromones that work contrary to aggregation pheromones. Encourages spacing out of colonies
What is the sixth type of insect pheromone?
Individual and group recognition
What are recognition pheromones?
Used to identify if an insect belongs to their specific colony
What is the seventh type of insect pheromone (last one)?
Caste determination
What are caste determination pheromones?
Polymorphism accompanied by a difference in a behaviour
What are other types of semiochemicals?
Allomones, synomones, and kairomone
What are allomones?
provide an advantage to the producer by modifying the behaviour of the receiver
(Defense repellant chemicals)
What are synomones?
Chemicals the benefit both producer and receiver
(chemicals released when a plant is damaged)
What are kairomones?
benefit the receiver but create a disadvantage to the producer
(pines produce terpenes that fail to deter pine beetles)
What are some facts about Mammalian pheromones?
Help maintain behaviour and reproduction, released via urine feces or outaneous glands, elict both behavioural and endocrine responses, and are thought to act singly or in combination
What are the two types of mammalian pheromones
- Primer pheromones (slow response may elicit future behavior)
- Releaser pheromones (rapid behaviour response)
How are pheromones in mammals received?
Via the vomeronasal organ (located between nose and mouth and not seen in primates)
What can male rat urine cause in female rats?
Hastening puberty in females (via primer pheromone)
How are pheromones present in rams?
Pheromones in ram wool, wax, and urine can stimulate ovulation
What is the “ram effect”
Ewes and rams separated from each other for 6 weeks and at least 2 km away to keep ovulation from occurring
Why is the ram effect used?
To intensify the ovulation when the ewes and rams are brought in contact
Can sex pheromones in rams still work even without testes?
Yes
How do bucks (goats) use pheromones to get does?
They pee on their front legs and chest and emit a scent from scent glands below horns during normal mating season (fall)
How do does (goats) respond when they smell a “buck jar”?
Wag their tail rapidly
What is boar taint sensitivity?
steroids (androstenone) stored in fat tissues of boars after sexual maturity onset puberty (ovarian activity after parturition) in heifers
Does BTS still work with a boar with no testes?
Yes
What did Martha Mcclintock (Harvard) discover about women?
Women living in same dorm gradually developed synchronous menstrual cycles
What evidence is there that human pheromones exist?
- underarm secretions had a calming effect on women
- women experienced a surge of luteinizing hormone (triggering sex drive + ovulation)
- Ovulation may be linked to odours that attract men to women
What has declined over the past 150 years?
Puberty age
What is allelopathy?
chemical competition caused by one higher plant on another in the natural environment
What are some characteristics of allelopathic substances?
plant secondary compounds, and they are usually volatile terpenes or phenolic compounds
Why may allelopathic substances and toxins arise?
To deter herbivores
What can happen to a plant with allelopathic substances over time?
They can begin to excrete from the plant (through leaves, stems, and roots)
What environment was allelopathy first discovered in?
Desert environment with desert plants
What is a secondary application for allelopathic chemical defenses?
Used to outcompete other plants within the same environment (between different or same species)
Do black walmut trees kill things?
Yes through leachates from roots and leaves
What did thistles negatively affect?
oat plants
What did leafy spurge harm?
Flax
What harms beans?
Dipped in water with root exudates from other beans
What is Juglone?
water-soluble yellow pigment produced by green parts of the plants that kills root growth and inhibits seed germination