Odorant detection in a locust exhibits unusually low redundancy.

Olfactory coding, from insects to humans, is canonically considered to involve considerable across-fiber coding already at the peripheral level, thereby allowing recognition of vast numbers of odor compounds. We show that the migratory locust has evolved an alternative strategy built on highly specific odorant receptors feeding into a complex primary processing center in the brain. By collecting odors from food and different life stages of the locust, we identified 205 ecologically relevant odorants, which we used to deorphanize 48 locust olfactory receptors via ectopic expression in Drosophila.

Ozone exposure disrupts insect sexual communication.

Insect sexual communication often relies upon sex pheromones. Most insect pheromones, however, contain carbon-carbon double bonds and potentially degrade by oxidation. Here, we show that frequently reported increased levels of Anthropocenic ozone can oxidize all described male-specific pheromones of Drosophila melanogaster, resulting in reduced amounts of pheromones such as cis-Vaccenyl Acetate and (Z)-7-Tricosene.

Drosophila Avoids Parasitoids by Sensing Their Semiochemicals via a Dedicated Olfactory Circuit.

Detecting danger is one of the foremost tasks for a neural system. Larval parasitoids constitute clear danger to Drosophila, as up to 80% of fly larvae become parasitized in nature. We show that Drosophila melanogaster larvae and adults avoid sites smelling of the main parasitoid enemies, Leptopilina wasps.

Evidence for regulation of resistance in Arabidopsis to Egyptian cotton worm by salicylic and jasmonic acid signaling pathways.

Signaling cross-talk between wound- and pathogen-response pathways influences resistance of plants to insects and disease. To elucidate potential interactions between salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) defense pathways, we exploited the availability of characterized mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.