2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

Key Note: Chair: Giovanni Galizia A 600 / 16:45
TALKS
Tristram Wyatt
Chemical communication in invertebrates and vertebrates: resolving pheromones
(species-wide signals) and signature mixtures (variable cues learned for identity)
Author: Tristram D Wyatt
Affiliation: 1 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK
Pheromones are not a myth but the highly complex chemical profiles of mammals
have caused doubts for some researchers. Part of the problem may be a confusion
between pheromones and signature mixtures (variable subsets of molecules of an
animal’s chemical profile which are learnt as a template by other animals, allowing
them to distinguish individuals or social insect colonies. Pheromones are specieswide
signals which elicit innate responses (though responses can be conditional on
development as well as context, experience, and internal state). The proposed
definitions for pheromone and signature mixture are based on the heuristic value of
separating these kinds of chemical information. In contrast to a species-wide
pheromone, as signature mixtures are a receiver-side phenomenon and it is the
differences in signature mixtures which allow animals to distinguish each other, there
is no single signature mixture to find. Almost all pheromones and all signature
mixtures, whatever the size of molecules, are detected by olfaction (as defined by
receptor families and glomerular processing), in mammals by the main olfactory
system or vomeronasal system or both. There is convergence on a glomerular
organization of olfaction in almost all animals. The processing of pheromones and
signature mixtures is usually combinatorial across a number of glomeruli, even for
sex pheromones which appear to have ‘labeled lines’. Narrowly specific pheromone
receptors are not a prerequisite for a molecule to be a pheromone. A small minority
of pheromones act directly on target tissues (allohormone pheromones) or are
detected by non-glomerular chemoreceptors such as taste (gustation).
Chair: Giovanni Galizia
S�37 Jacob Stierle M 627 / 11:00
Honeybees use millisecond time-differences in stimulus coherence for odorbackground
segregation
Authors: Jacob S. Stierle 1 , Stephanie Biergans 1 , Giovanni Galizia 1 , Paul Szyszka 1
Affiliation: 1 University of Konstanz
Airborne odorants rarely occur alone but they intermingle with odorants from
multiple sources. Odor mixtures are known to elicit interactions in both behavioral
and physiological responses, changing the perceptive quality of mixtures as
compared to the components. However, relevant odors need to be segregated from
a background. This problem is analogous to effects from different modalities, e.g.
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