Publication Date:
2012-12-12
Description:
Pollinators exhibit a range of innate and learned behaviors that mediate interactions with flowers, but the olfactory bases of these responses in a naturalistic context remain poorly understood. The hawkmoth Manduca sexta is an important pollinator for many night-blooming flowers but can learn--through olfactory conditioning--to visit other nectar resources. Analysis of the flowers that are innately attractive to moths shows that the scents all have converged on a similar chemical profile that, in turn, is uniquely represented in the moth's antennal (olfactory) lobe. Flexibility in visitation to nonattractive flowers, however, is mediated by octopamine-associated modulation of antennal-lobe neurons during learning. Furthermore, this flexibility does not extinguish the innate preferences. Such processing of stimuli through two olfactory channels, one involving an innate bias and the other a learned association, allows the moths to exist within a dynamic floral environment while maintaining specialized associations.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Riffell, Jeffrey A -- Lei, Hong -- Abrell, Leif -- Hildebrand, John G -- R01-DC-02751/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Jan 11;339(6116):200-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1225483. Epub 2012 Dec 6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-800, USA. jriffell@u.washington.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23223454" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Arthropod Antennae/physiology
;
Brain/physiology
;
Electrophysiological Processes
;
Feeding Behavior
;
*Flowers
;
Learning
;
Male
;
Manduca/*physiology
;
Neurons/*physiology
;
Octopamine/pharmacology/*physiology
;
Odors
;
Olfactory Pathways
;
*Plant Nectar
;
Pollination
;
Smell/physiology
;
Volatile Organic Compounds
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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