Involvement of the Nervous System with PBAN

Abstract

It is generally accepted that PBAN (pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide) and PBAN-like compounds possessing pheromonotropic activity are biosynthesized in the subesophageal ganglion (SEG). Immunocytochemical studies in several species have revealed discrete groups of PBAN-like immunoreactive cells in the SEG to support this conclusion (Davis et al. 1993; Kingan et al. 1992; Tips et al. 1993). In two lepidopterous speciesHelicoverpa zeaandBombyx moria gene has been characterized from the SEG and found to encode PBAN and four other related peptides (Kawano et al. 1992; Ma et al. 1994). PBAN immunoreactivity also was found by these investigators in the corpora cardiaca (CC), as well as along the ventral nerve cord to the terminal abdominal ganglion. These data support a multiplicity of functions and means of transportation for these peptides, including PBAN. This chapter, however, is not intended as a review of all data that support either a mode of action for PBAN involving release from the CC into the hemolymph or involving transportation down the ventral nerve cord. The focus will be on research from our laboratory on several species and how some aspects of the mode of action of PBAN may or may not involve the nervous system in those species.