Abstract
Successful mating is essentially a consequence of making the right choices at the correct time. Animals use specific strategies to gain information about a potential mate, which is then applied to decision-making processes. Amongst the many informative signals, odor cues such as sex pheromones play important ecological roles in coordinating mating behavior, enabling mate and kin recognition, qualifying mate choice, and preventing gene exchange among individuals from different populations and species. Despite overwhelming behavioral evidence, the chemical identity of most cues used in aquatic organisms remains unknown and their impact and omnipresence have not been fully recognized. In many crustaceans, including lobsters and shrimps, reproduction happens through a cascade of events ranging from initial attraction to formation of a mating pair eventually leading to mating. We examined the hypothesis that contact pheromones on the female body surface of the hermaphroditic shrimp Lysmata boggessi are of lipophilic nature, and resemble insect cuticular hydrocarbon contact cues. Via chemical analyses and behavioural assays, we show that newly molted euhermaphrodite-phase shrimp contain a bouquet of odor compounds. Of these, (Z)-9-octadecenamide is the key odor with hexadecanamide and methyl linoleate enhancing the bioactivity of the pheromone blend. Our results show that in aquatic systems lipophilic, cuticular hydrocarbon contact sex pheromones exist; this raises questions on how hydrocarbon contact signals evolved and how widespread these are in the marine environment.
Highlights
In species where mating competition is significant and the window of opportunity to mate is limited, sexual partners need to develop signals that can be used to make an informed decision on whether to invest in mating efforts [1,2]
We examined the hypothesis that contact pheromones on the female body surface of the hermaphroditic shrimp Lysmata boggessi are lipophilic in nature, and as such, resemble insect cuticular hydrocarbon contact cues [1,6]
Can cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC’s) function as contact pheromones in aquatic organisms? To investigate the chemical composition of the carapace of shrimps at different stages of their development and sexual maturity, we used solvent extractions and coated polyethylene tubes that functioned as dummy females in our bioassays with these extracts
Summary
In species where mating competition is significant and the window of opportunity to mate is limited, sexual partners need to develop signals that can be used to make an informed decision on whether to invest in mating efforts [1,2]. Distance pheromones are usually air transmitted and, as such, are volatile compounds, while contact pheromones are coated on the body surface [8] requiring physical tactile interaction In aquatic animals, such as crustaceans, distance pheromones are hypothesized as mostly polar, water-soluble compounds to enable transmission in odor plumes [4]. Contact pheromones should be relatively insoluble in water (non-polar) to remain on the exterior surfaces reducing the need to be replaced constantly. In decapod crustaceans, such as crabs [9,10], lobsters [11], and crayfish [12], the urine of females contains a pheromone that acts over a distance to attract male mating partners. Contact pheromones have been proposed in mate recognition [13,14] but the chemical identity of the compound(s) responsible remains unknown [8]
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