Sexual isolation of male moths explained by a single pheromone response QTL containing four receptor genes.

Long distance sexual communication in moths has fascinated biologists because of the complex, precise female pheromone signals and the extreme sensitivity of males to specific pheromone molecules. Progress has been made in identifying some genes involved in female pheromone production and in male response. However, we have lacked information on the genetic changes involved in evolutionary diversification of these mate-finding mechanisms that is critical to understanding speciation in moths and other taxa.

QTL analysis of sex pheromone blend differences between two closely related moths: Insights into divergence in biosynthetic pathways.

To understand the evolution of premating signals in moths, it is important to know the genetic basis of these signals. We conducted Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) analysis by hybridizing two noctuid moth species, Heliothis virescens (Hv) and Heliothis subflexa (Hs), and backcrossing the F(1) females to males of both parental species. One of these backcrosses (F(1) x Hs) was a biological replicate of our previous study (Sheck et al.