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Photoperiod-dependent release of suppression pheromone in the male lobster cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea

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Abstract

The complex agonistic repertoire between male lobster cockroaches (Nauphoeta cinerea) makes this species an excellent model for aggression studies. During the establishment of dominance hierarchies, 3-hydroxy-2-butanone (3H-2B) functions as a suppression pheromone, keeping the rivals in a submissive state. In the present study, we evaluated the release of 3H-2B by dominant individuals across four different time phases within the 24-h photoperiod, i.e., early scotophase (ES), late scotophase (LS), early photophase (EP), and late photophase (LP). For each time phase, we collected volatile pheromones during a 60-min first-encounter fight to measure the level of released 3H-2B. Subsequently, the amount of 3H-2B remaining in the sternal glands of dominant and subordinate individuals was measured and compared to socially naïve male controls. Release of 3H-2B was relatively high during ES or LP first-encounter fights, compared to LS or EP encounters. The attack duration and aggressive posture intensity in dominant males were positively correlated with the amount of 3H-2B release in all four phases. A similar statistical distribution was found between the amount of 3H-2B released by dominant males and the amount of 3H-2B in the sternal glands of naïve male sternal during LS, EP, and LP. However, during ES, the statistical distribution of 3H-2B released by the dominant was significantly greater than the distribution of 3H-2B content in socially naïve male sternal glands. The observed phase-dependence of 3H-2B release might be due to variations in 3H-2B biosynthesis or the scotophase-specific behavior of naïve males, wherein an aggressive posture is spontaneously adopted with concomitant 3H-2B release.

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Acknowledgments

We warmly thank the Data Science Statistical Cooperation Center of Academia Sinica (ASCFII-108-117) for statistical analysis support.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Science Council (NSC92- 2313-B-001-010) and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 115, Republic of China

    Rong Kou & Chu-Chun Hsu

  2. Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Shu-Chun Chen

  3. National Palace Museum, Taipei, 111, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Rou-Ling Yang

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  1. Rong Kou
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  2. Shu-Chun Chen
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  3. Rou-Ling Yang
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  4. Chu-Chun Hsu
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Correspondence to Rong Kou.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Nauphoeta cinerea were used for experiments in this article. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Communicated by: Matthias Waltert

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Kou, R., Chen, SC., Yang, RL. et al. Photoperiod-dependent release of suppression pheromone in the male lobster cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea. Sci Nat 106, 56 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-019-1654-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-019-1654-5

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