For a female cockroach, what really attracts the opposite sex to "crazy" is neither its compound eyes nor the shape of the carapace on its back, but the 29-hydrocarbons in its stratum corneum. On July 27, local time, Liu Tongxian and others of Northwest A & F University in China published a new study in the journal Public Science Library Biology, exploring how female cockroaches regulate the production of these contact pheromones and what happens when pheromone secretion is too small.
The German cockroach (Blatella germanica) is the most common and despised cockroach in the world. Like other insects, their exoskeletons are filled with a rich mixture of molecules, including some oily hydrocarbons used to keep them dry. One of the keys to distinguishing male cockroaches from female cockroaches is a hydrocarbon called 3,11-dimethylc29. Female cockroaches can chemically convert this compound into sexual pheromones, while male cockroaches that use their antennae to sense pheromones will spread their wings, revealing nutrient-rich glands. When the female enjoys food in the gland, the male takes the opportunity to mate with it.
Like other long-chain fat molecules, precursors of pheromones are formed in part by stretching shorter hydrocarbon chains under the action of elongating enzymes. To better understand how cockroaches regulate this process, the researchers used RNA interference to block a set of elongation enzymes in cockroaches. They found that when an extension enzyme called BgElo12 was knocked out, the cockroaches had lower levels of sexual pheromones, while females were less attractive to males.
Through RNA interference knockout technology, the researchers found that the production of BgElo12 was regulated by two insect differentiation genes (which have been confirmed by previous fruit fly studies). In male cockroaches, a intersex gene inhibits the production of the elongation enzyme, thereby limiting pheromone production; however, in females, another gene called Transformer blocks the effects of the intersex gene, turning on the elongation enzyme gene. The researchers found that inhibiting the "converter" in the female's body again inhibited the production of pheromones and reduced the sexual attraction of the female cockroach.
"It is valuable to identify the path of regulatory pheromones in female cockroaches." "Maybe it can help us control these pests with global implications," Liu said. "
Editor: Tangerine Reviewer: Seamus Editor:Chen Zhihan
Journal Source: Public Science Library biology
Issue number: 1544-9173
Original link: https://phys.org/news/2021-07-cockroach-sex-block-enzyme.html
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