Midterm Study (Invertebrate, Vertebrate Pheromones, Invert Processing)

Question 1

What are the 10 pheromone categories?

Answer 1

1. alarm
2. aggregation
3. attractant
4. courtship
5. hatching
6. mating
7. navigation
8. settling
9. territory marking
10. trail marking

Question 2

What are the 4 pheromone classifications?

Answer 2

1. releaser
2. modulator
3. signaler
4. primer

Question 3

Give a vertebrate example of an alarm pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 3

European minnows

sender: injured minnow
receiver: other minnows
response: other minnows swim away from perceived threat

Question 4

Give an invertebrate example of an alarm pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 4

Navanax nudibranchs

sender: injured navanax
receiver: following navanaxes
response: follower navanaxes veer off the trail of the injured nudibranch to avoid potential predator/threat

Question 5

Give a vertebrate example of an aggregation pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 5

mallard ducks

sender: sexually mature male mallards
receiver: other male mallards
response: aggregation of sexually mature males for courtship display to females

red-sided garter snakes

sender: females
receiver: males

Question 6

Give an invertebrate example of an aggregation pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 6

western pine beetle

female arrives first and release pheromones to ATTRACT males
a male arrives and release other pheromones

sender: once both a female and male are present, their pheromones together act as an aggregation pheromone
receiver: other pine beetles
response: aggregation of individuals at the western pine tree

honey bees:

sender: queen
receiver: workers
response: if temperature is low to cause workers to aggregate and shake to increase temperature

Question 7

Give a vertebrate example of an attractant pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 7

magnificent tree frogs

sender: males release splendipherin
receiver: females
response: attracts females ready to mate

Question 8

Give an invertebrate example of an attractant pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 8

silkworm moths

sender: female silkworm moths ready to reproduce
receiver: male silkworm moths
response: males start flapping wings and walking toward female

Question 9

Give a vertebrate example of a courtship pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 9

goldfish?

sender: females release prostaglandin internally to stimulate ovulation and externally in urine, it signals to the male that the female is ovulating
receiver: herself (internal = ovulation) and males
response: males begin courting the female by swimming around her

Question 10

Give an invertebrate example of a courtship pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 10

Drosophila?

Question 11

Give a vertebrate example of a hatching pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Question 12

Give an invertebrate example of a hatching pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 12

estuarine crabs

sender: embryos
receiver: fertilized females (mothers)
response: stimulate abdominal muscle flexing in females to release the larvae

Question 13

Give a vertebrate example of a mating pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 13

wild boars or domestic pigs

sender: male boars
receiver: female boars
response: if a female boar detects the pheromone in the male’s breath, she will move into the mating position

Question 14

Give an invertebrate example of a mating pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 14

blue crabs

sender: female urine signals to male the reproductive state of female
receiver: males
response: males perform a mating display and then carry female body around until done

Question 15

Give a vertebrate example of a navigation pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 15

sea lamprey

sender: juvenile lampreys
receiver: adult lampreys
response: guides adults back to spawning ground

Question 16

Give an invertebrate example of a navigation pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Question 17

Give an invertebrate example of a settling pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 17

Arctic barnacles

sender: adult Arctic barnacles
receiver: larval Arctic barnacles
response: mobile larvae settle in area where adults release pheromone

Question 18

Give a vertebrate example of a settling pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Question 19

Give a vertebrate example of a territory marking pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 19

big cats (ex. cheetahs) excrete urine on trees or large rocks to mark their territory

sender: territory owner (a male cheetah)
receiver: potential competitors (other male cheetahs)

Question 20

Give an invertebrate example of a territory marking pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 20

NA??

Question 21

Give a vertebrate example of a trail marking pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 21

NA?

Question 22

Give an invertebrate example of a trail marking pheromone including sender, receiver, response and context

Answer 22

foraging ants

sender: foraging ants
receiver: other ants from the colony
response: other ants from the colony are recruited to help bring the food source back to the colony

Question 23

Define a releaser pheromone

Answer 23

a pheromone which elicits an immediate BEHAVIOURAL response in the receiver

Question 24

Define a modulator pheromone

Answer 24

a pheromone which affects the emotional state of the receiver

Question 25

Define a signaler pheromone

Answer 25

a pheromone which provides information or used for communication and does not necessarily elicit a behavioural response

Question 26

Define a primer pheromone

Answer 26

a pheromone which elicits a long-term, physiological response in the receiver

Question 27

Give a vertebrate example of a releaser pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 27

reminder: releaser = elicits an immediate BEHAVIOURAL response in the receiver elephants sender: female receiver: male context: male ingests female vaginal secretions to determine reproductive state, if she is in oestrus then response: males will immediately be 'ready' to mate

Question 28

Give an invertebrate example of a releaser pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 28

reminder: releaser = elicits an immediate BEHAVIOURAL response in the receiver alarm pheromones in nudibranchs trail marking in ants female attractant in silkworm moths

Question 29

Give a vertebrate example of a modulator pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 29

reminder: elicits an emotional state response in receiver human females relax after watching horror movie when exposed to male pheromones

Question 30

Give an invertebrate example of a modulator pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 30

reminder: elicits an emotional state response in receiver male drones release a pheromone to calm the worker bees in the colony to tolerate their presence

Question 31

Give a vertebrate example of a signaler pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 31

reminder: signaler pheromones provide information/used for communication (no behavioural response required) female deer returning to herd is able to recognize her kin crested auklets' fragrant huddle - sniffing each other to learn information (recognition, identification, age, ready to mate?)

Question 32

Give an invertebrate example of a signaler pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 32

reminder: signaler pheromones provide information/used for communication (no behavioural response required) ex. territory marking in fire ants - allows members of other fire ant colonies to decide to attack or avoid

Question 33

Give a vertebrate example of a primer pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 33

reminder: elicits a long-term, physiological effect dominant female tamarins and marmosets suppress other females' ovulation tadpole alarm pheromone which changes the life history of other tadpoles = metamorphosis at earlier time/smaller size

Question 34

Give an invertebrate example of a primer pheromone including sender, receiver and response

Answer 34

reminder: elicits a long-term, physiological effect queen bees suppress worker bees' ovulation so she is the only one who can reproduce

Question 35

What are the benefits and negatives of volatility

Answer 35

benefits: spreads the message further and potentially reaches more individuals negative: volatility depends on the medium which its being spread through - if in water, molecule needs to be hydrophilic to be volatile or needs a carrier

Question 36

What 6 characteristics are universal for all pheromones?

Answer 36

1. old/ancient 2. ubiquitous 3. made from organic molecules 4. required in low concentrations 5. highly specific 6. diverse

Question 37

Define pheromones

Answer 37

chemicals used to communicate within a species very low concentrations required and made from organic molecules

Question 38

what 5 characteristics can vary in pheromones?

Answer 38

1. volatility 2. stability 3. persistence 4. duality 5. derived from existing chemicals

Question 39

if a juvenile female mouse is exposed to the urine of an adult female.... this is an example of what category of pheromone?

Answer 39

puberty in the juvenile female is postponed to slow population growth (have fewer reproductive females at a time)

Question 40

if a juvenile female mouse is exposed to the urine of an adult male....

Answer 40

puberty is accelerated to increase reproductive success

Question 41

if a juvenile female mouse is exposed to the urine of an unfamiliar adult female....

Answer 41

oestrus is slowed down to reduce reproductive competition and save energy

Question 42

if a juvenile female mouse is exposed to the urine of an unfamiliar adult male....

Answer 42

oestrus is accelerated to increase reproductive success

Question 43

What happens when an inseminated female mouse is exposed to the urine of an unfamiliar male?

Answer 43

pregnancy is terminated ('Bruce effect') - if a female mates with a male outside of the group, the pheromones in the dominant male's urine will end the pregnancy so it's only his offspring same if the alpha male is overthrown by a new male

Question 44

What 6 things can occur that complicates the study of the pheromone?

Answer 44

1. redundancy of signals 2. modification of pheromones 3. habituation 4. proteins as pheromones and hierarchy of pheromones 5. learning 6. social context and recognition - sometimes no measurable response

Question 45

How can redundancy of pheromones make studying them difficult? give an example of a redundancy and why

Answer 45

multiple pathways to give the same response how do you know what is responsible for the response? is it multiple things or just one? ex. black-tailed deer when signalling alarm may release a pheromone, but also stomp their forefeet and make hissing sounds this increases the level of complexity - how can you know which is causing the response?

Question 46

How can modification of pheromones / responses make studying them difficult? give an example of a pheromone that is modified and why

Answer 46

ex. male elephants modify the response to a female in oestrus with an 'off-switch' by degrading the signal if the situation does not allow for immediate mating if the receiver modifies the pheromone, it makes it difficult to study because the response is not what the researcher is expecting

Question 47

How does habituation create complications for studying pheromones? give an example of habituation

Answer 47

mice and other rodents (Coolidge effect)

Question 48

How do proteins as pheromones and a hierarchy of pheromones complicate research? give an example

Answer 48

hamsters produce proteins that act as pheromones difficult to determine what molecule is acting as a pheromone

Question 49

How does learning create complications for studying pheromones? give an example of creating

Answer 49

rabbit offspring found the nipple easily even when the pheromone was changed makes it difficult to determine if the animal is using pheromones to communicate or if the response is just learned

Question 50

How do pheromones used for social context/recognition create complications for studying pheromones? give an example

Answer 50

there may not be a behavioural response which can be studied ex. hyenas sniff one another

Question 51

the mouse example with juvenile and adult mice is an example of what category of pheromones?

Answer 51

elicits a physiological response in the receiver = primer pheromones

Question 52

define semiochemicals and give an example

Answer 52

chemicals used for communicating a message WITHIN an individual ex. hormones

Question 53

define allelochemicals

Answer 53

chemicals used to communicate BETWEEN species (interspecific)

Question 54

What are sensilla (pl.)? What type of information can they receive and what processes are they involved in?

Answer 54

hair-like structures on insect antennae that increase surface area can contain both chemoreceptive and mechanoreceptive sensory neurons involved in olfaction, detection of pheromones, gustation and hearing and touch in insects

Question 55

What are the 3 types of sensilla and give examples

Answer 55

1. trichoid - hair-like - bees 2. basiconic - peg-like - house flies 3. coeloconic - recessed peg-like -

Question 56

What are the major structures of a sensillum (s.)?

Answer 56

external cuticle pore(s) in cuticle internal: dendrites of sensory neuron extend toward tip 2-4 cell bodies of sensory neurons at base of sensillum with axons extending toward central

Question 57

What are the pros and cons of having more pores on a sensillum?

Answer 57

more increases the sensitivity because there is greater access of ligands to receptors but more susceptible to water loss

Question 58

What 5 methods can be used to study sensilla and responses to pheromones?

Answer 58

nanotools which mimic moth antennae bioassays - ex. bees with positive stimulus and conditioning electroantennograms - antennae need to be amputated - determine if there is a response to an odourant extracellular recording - probes which determine which cells respond to a stimulus mapping - which sensilla are distributed where and related to what sensory processes/structures

Question 59

How many synapses is the antennal lobe from the brain?

Answer 59

one

Question 60

how many sensory neurons (OSNs) does a single sensillum have?

Answer 60

2-4

Question 61

What is an OSN?

Answer 61

Olfactory Sensory Neuron

Question 62

How many olfactory receptor (OR) types can a OSN have?

Answer 62

a single OSN can only have one type of OR, though they can have more than one OR

Question 63

Which structure do sensillum axon project into in the antennal lobe?

Answer 63

sensillum axon projects into glomerulus in the antennal lobe

Question 64

What is a neuropil? what structure has this form? What is its purpose?

Answer 64

a spherical organization that is only fibers (no cell bodies) to make communication more efficient glomeruli have neuropil forms

Question 65

Where are glomeruli located?

Answer 65

in the antennal lobe inside the brain

Question 66

What are local interneurons (LIN)? what do they do and where do they project and synapse?

Answer 66

LINs project and synapse onto glomeruli to communicate between glomeruli (usually a few of many glomeruli - not all of them) they refine information (ex. from a plume): they receive input from glomeruli and cause lateral inhibition to INCREASE specificity and determine what information moves forward for more processing

Question 67

What part of the antennal lobe pathway in insects increases specificity?

Answer 67

lateral inhibition of signals by the local interneurons in the glomeruli

Question 68

What questions about sensilla of the antenna determine what happens to the signal?

Answer 68

what type of sensillum is receiving? are its receptors activated? how many are activated? distribution of ORs? timing of OR activation? how many pores?

Question 69

What are projection neurons (PNs)?

Answer 69

neurons that have cell bodies outside of the glomeruli but still in antennal lobe PN dendrites project from cell bodies in antennal lobe into glomeruli and axons project onto the Kenyon cells of mushroom bodies some are uni-glomerular and some have dendrites which extend to more than one glomerulus alternatively, the PNs can project onto the lateral horn for coarse discrimination

Question 70

What 4 structures are mushroom bodies composed of?

Answer 70

1. Kenyon cells 2. calyces 3. peduncle 4. alpha, beta, gamma lobes

Question 71

What do the axons of the projection neurons project onto?

Answer 71

mushroom bodies

Question 72

What are Kenyon cells (KC)? where do their axons and dendrites project?

Answer 72

the local cell bodies within each mushroom body dendrites project into the calcyes body axons form the Peduncle

Question 73

what are the calcyes?

Answer 73

smaller neuropils (than previous glomeruli) that are arranged in layers based on modality (chemosensory, visual, etc) in the mushroom bodies

Question 74

what is the peduncle of a mushroom body?

Answer 74

resembles the stalk of a mushroom composed of the Kenyon cell axons

Question 75

What are the alpha, beta and gamma lobes of the mushroom bodies?

Answer 75

where the outputs (behaviour) of the mushroom bodies are sent from where fine discrimination, learning and memory occurs the outputs

Question 76

In the antennal lobe pathway, what increases sensitivity (redundancy) to the signal?

Answer 76

convergence of OSNs with the same OR type on a single glomerulus ex. all the OSNs with OR type 1 project onto glomerulus 1

Question 77

Briefly, what are the steps for odourant detection in the pathway from periphery to central?

Answer 77

odourant > sensillum > Odourant-Binding Protein (OR) > Olfactory Sensory Neuron > glomeruli in the Antennal Lobe > Projection Neuron > Kenyon Cells in the Mushroom Bodies > alpha,beta,gamma lobes alternatively, from the Projection Neurons, the information can be sent to the Lateral Horn to cause acute/innate behaviour (coarse discrimination)

Question 78

Briefly, what are the steps for pheromone detection in the pathway from periphery to central? what happens at the end?

Answer 78

sensillum on antenna > pheromone binding protein on OR > OSN > Macroglomerular complex in the antennal lobe > projection neurons > lateral horn lateral horn is where coarse discrimination occurs for acute and innate behaviours

Question 79

What is the lateral horn?

Answer 79

the structure where projection neurons project final pheromonal signals for processing - coarse discrimination and outputs are acute/innate behaviour or where projection neurons carrying odourant information send info

Question 80

What is a macroglomerular complex?

Answer 80

a neuropil structure in the antennal lobe which responds to particularly important sensory information - enlarged for more processing it increases redundancy = increases sensitivity ex. for ants it could be for sensing trail marking pheromones

Question 81

What does increasing redundancy do?

Answer 81

increases sensitivity to the stimulus

Question 82

What is the difference between odourant and pheromone processing pathways?

Answer 82

odourant: olfactory receptors on the OSNs have odourant-binding proteins vs. pheromone-binding proteins on the ORs in pheromone pathway odourant pathway does not usually include MGCs whereas pheromone pathway has MGC odourant processing finishes in the Kenyon cells of the mushroom bodies where fine discrimination, learning, memory and integration of multisensory information occurs vs. pheromone processing finishes in the lateral horn of the mushroom bodies where coarse discrimination occurs and outputs are acute/innate behaviour

Question 83

Where can crossover between the 2 pathways occur?

Answer 83

the OSNs of P.pathway can project onto regular glomeruli in the antennal lobe instead of just onto the MGC the PNs of the P.pathway can project onto Kenyon cells of the MBs instead of the lateral horn the PNs of the O.pathway can project onto the lateral horn of the mushroom bodies instead of the Kenyon cells

Question 84

Would honeybees or Drosophila have more elaborate mushroom bodies? why?

Answer 84

honeybees - they are eusocial and more complex

Question 85

What are the roles of each caste in honey bee colonies?

Answer 85

queen: - lay eggs - run colony with pheromones (suppress workers' ovulation) drone: - mate with queen of new colonies - keep colony happy by releasing a calming pheromone workers: - in-hive tasks (capping pupating cells, cleaning, feeding larvae, caring for queen) - guarding hive - foraging for pollen - roles change depending on age (nurse > hive maintenance > foraging) larvae / brood

Question 86

In a honey bee colony, which castes produce pheromones? give examples for each

Answer 86

all of them including the brood queen: pheromone to suppress the ovulation of worker bees so she is the only one who can reproduce drones: pheromone to keep hive calm especially if he has returned from a mating venture (means he was unsuccessful and is now useless) workers: pheromone for marking profitable food or water source (trail marking?), alarm pheromone when intruder larvae/brood: pheromones released to make sure they are fed and taken care of by the nurse worker bees (the queen is also releasing pheromones for this)

Question 87

How can the worker bees be an example of redundancy in signals?

Answer 87

they release pheromones at profitable food or water source but also they do a dance for the colony when they return to provide directions to the source

Question 88

Give an example of specificity in pheromones

Answer 88

bolas spiders sender: female spiders can mimic the armyworm moth's sex attractant pheromone to attract a male moth receiver: male armyworm moth response: male attractant and spider gets to eat spider can change the ratio of components to signal to different moths depending on their activity and the time