The smell of moulting: N-acetylglucosamino-1,5-lactone is a premoult biomarker and candidate component of the courtship pheromone in the urine of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus (original) (raw)
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Marine Ecology Progress Series, 2002
Experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that females of the shore crab Carcinus maenas release a sex pheromone to induce the pre-copula behaviour leading to the formation of mating pairs. In the novel behavioural assay, a positive response to a female-derived signal involves 'homosexual' behaviour: a pre-copula male moves towards another pre-copula male that has been 'exposed' to the substance(s) under investigation. The assay male grasps the 'pheromone-treated' male (the 'pseudo-female') to test the hardness of the cuticle with its chelipeds, and invariably proceeds to manipulate the pseudo-female beneath its abdomen as in pre-copula ('homosexual pair formation'). Control males show an agonistic behaviour towards each other. Male shore crabs will also attempt to pair with non-crab-like objects, such as stones, if these are conditioned with female pheromone. This demonstrates that male mate selection in Carcinus maenas is based primarily on the detection of female odour compounds. Urine collected from the urinary bladder of pre-copula females, as well as 'culture water' obtained from these females, elicited a positive response, whereas similar samples collected from inter-moult females failed to induce a sexual response in males. Preliminary characterisation of the 'waterborne cue(s)' revealed the sex pheromone(s) to be smaller than 1000 Da molecular weight, sparingly soluble in organic solvents, lyophilisable, and chemically distinct from 20-hydroxyecdysone (crustecdysone) and arthropodin. Crustecdysone showed no biological activity in the assay and was not detectable in the bioactive HPLC fraction. Although this does not completely rule out a steroidal character for the sex pheromone, LC-MS analyses utilising electrospray and atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI) did not show a steroid in the bioactive fraction.
Chemical Characterization of Urinary Pheromones in Brown Antechinus, Antechinus stuartii
Journal of Chemical Ecology - J CHEM ECOL, 1999
In the small dasyurid marsupial, Antechinus stuartii, males exhibit scent-marking in the form of cloacal marking of nesting areas during the breeding season. Females of this species show no such behavior. To characterize the potential male pheromonal scent signal, urine-derived volatiles from sexually active males were analyzed by GC-MS and compared to that of females and a castrated male. More than 10 urinary compounds were identified. A series of homologous methylketones was observed in both males and females, whereas aldehydes were present only in female urine. Urine from the castrate was virtually compound-free except for minute concentrations of a compound tentatively identified as 2,4-dithiapentane. This compound was also found in one of the sexually active males. The GC profiles of the sexually active males contained high concentrations of two pyrazine derivatives and four methylketones that were not detected in the profiles of either females or the castrate. These compounds ...
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2010
Blue crabs Callinectes sapidus, like most decapods, synchronously hatch eggs and release larvae over a very short time period. Synchrony is achieved though vigorous abdominal pumping in response to pheromones from hatching eggs. We hypothesized that these or related pheromones stimulate vertical swimming associated with larval release and ebb-tide swimming during the last few days before egg hatching. We used abdominal pumping and swimming assays to investigate the roles of pheromones. We tested responses of crabs to egg extract containing pheromones, trypsin (an enzyme that generates peptide pheromones), and bradykinin (a peptide pheromone mimic). We delivered test substances directly into the egg mass via capillary tubing. In response to egg extract, ovigerous crabs increased abdominal pumping and vertical swimming, showing native pheromones evoke both behaviors. Delivery of trypsin and bradykinin caused increased pumping but not vertical swimming. These results suggest that pheromones generated from eggs stimulate vertical swimming during ebb-tide transport, but that peptides that induce abdominal pumping are not sufficient to cause swimming. We hypothesize that swimming is stimulated by a blend of molecules that includes these peptide pheromones.
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 1996
In Nereis juponica, mature individuals leave their burrows to spawn at night near to the water surface. This process is timed by environmental factors such as temperature, daylength and lunar cycle to result in simultaneous spawning of a given population. The swarming behaviour which ensues is controlled by a bouquet of sex pheromones. A volatile compound, the ketone 3,5-octadiene-2-one was isolated and chemically characterized from the coelomic fluid of ripe, swarming females of N. juponica. During the reproductive behaviour of this species the ketone elicits an increase of swimming activity. This nuptial dance is characterized by swimming in circles prior to the release of gametes into the free water column. In N. juponicu, the 3,5octadiene-2-one functions in a very similar way to the sex pheromone Smethyl-3-heptanone previously described in a number of nereid species. 5-methyl-3-heptanone is not detectable in N. ju~onica and behavioural assays revealed no significant stimulation by addition of this substance but an abrupt decrease in swarming activity. The importance of species specificity of chemical signals during reproduction of closely related nereid polychaetes is discussed.
Larval release behaviors in the blue crab Callinectes sapidus: role of chemical cues
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2002
Egg hatching by brachyuran crabs is often precisely timed relative to environmental cycles and may be controlled by the female, the developing embryos, or both. The current conceptual model for larval release in subtidal brachyuran crabs is that the exact time of release is controlled by the developing embryos. At the time of hatching, the eggs release pheromones that induce stereotypic larval release behaviors in ovigerous females consisting of rapid abdominal pumping. This behavior breaks open the eggs and results in synchronized hatching. To test this model, we examined the role of pheromone substances released by developing and hatching eggs in initiating this pumping behavior in ovigerous blue crabs Callinectes sapidus. Pumping behavior was used as a bioassay to determine if pumping activity changes with the developmental state of the eggs and to test the response of ovigerous crabs to (1) substances released by hatching eggs (hatch water), (2) substances present in homogenized eggs containing early-and late-stage embryos (homogenized egg water), and (3) substances released by developing eggs containing early-and late-stage embryos (egg conditioned water). Pumping activity associated with egg maintenance increased with embryo development. Pumping activity increased with increasing concentration of hatch water and the threshold concentrations for females possessing early-and late-stage eggs were similar. Water containing homogenized eggs also evoked larval release behaviors and response thresholds were the same for females exposed to early-and late-stage egg treatments. Egg conditioned water prepared from eggs containing late-stage embryos was more potent than water prepared from eggs with earlystage embryos. Collectively, these results support the model that larval release in C. sapidus is controlled by pheromones released from hatching eggs and indicate that (1) the responsiveness of ovigerous C. sapidus to the pheromones is relatively independent of the stage of embryo development, (2) homogenates of both early-and late-stage eggs contain similar pheromone
Field studies on chemically mediated behavior in land hermit crabs: Volatile and nonvolatile odors
Journal of Chemical Ecology, 1986
Land hermit crabs, Coenobita rugos&, were tested in the field in Costa Rica for behavioral responses to odors. Volatile odors associated with horse feces, fruit, and honey attracted crabs within minutes. Odors from dead gastropod flesh were not immediately attractive, but after aging, odors from a variety of flesh sources attracted crabs. Crabs fed actively upon the materials that attracted them. Feeding behavior was stimulated by components of fruit juice and fresh gastropod flesh juices of less than 10,000 daltons, honey, a 0.5 M sucrose solution, and a saturated solution of tyrosine. Twenty additional amino acid solutions tested at 0.1 M concentration were weak feeding stimulants at best. Chemical cues controlled feeding behavior, but not shell acquisition; C. rugosis were not differentially attracted to flesh odors or to living gastropods whose shells they occupied.