Animals warn each other about danger, call for help, look for mating partners using chemical signals. Plants, insects, and even mammals produce thousands of different volatile compounds, most of which scientists have yet to decipher. About the chemical language of living nature - in the material RIA Novosti.
Save yourself who can
When the caterpillar of the Asian cotton moth (Spodoptera litura) closes its jaws on a tobacco leaf, it triggers the synthesis of phytohormones of jasmonates - jasmonic acid and its esters. Hormones activate protective genes that stimulate the production of toxic substances. As a result, the leaves become tasteless and even dangerous for herbivorous insects.
If a dodder (a parasitic plant that feeds on the host's juices) lives on tobacco, then all nearby plants united by dodder into a single network will receive a jasmonate signal of danger. In preparation for meeting caterpillars, they will also increase the synthesis of toxins.
the dodder parasite plant has no leaves or roots. With the help of special outgrowths (haustoria), it penetrates into the host plant and sucks out nutrients from it.
Alarming chemical signals are transmitted without the involvement of parasites. For example, tridentate wormwood (Artemisia tridentata) warns of the invasion of herbivorous insects by special volatile substances (phytoncides). But only the closest relatives, including clone plants from shoots cut from the mother. All others (even wormwood of a different kind) are ignored.
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Ant propaganda
When enemies attack the anthill, the soldier ants very quickly gather together and repel the attack. This coordination is provided by special chemicals - pheromones, produced by the exocrine glands of insects.
In case of danger, soldiers spread pheromones in a radius of several centimeters, and other ants recognize them as sensilla - small sensitive processes on antennae.
If they fail to win, the ants change their tactics: they try to confuse the enemies with the help of the so-called "propaganda pheromone", forcing the invaders to fight each other. This is one of the few universal signals recognized by all species of ants.
Ants transmit important social information by exchanging pheromones / Matthew Dillon.
After all, each ant family "speaks" its own language of chemical signals, incomprehensible to other insects. There are thousands of compounds that induce ants to perform one action or another - to feed their offspring or clean up the nest, route routes and bury the dead.
Little is known about the chemical composition of these substances. Scientists have managed to decompose only 36 species of ant pheromones into elements. But even identifying them, the researchers argue, will help advance understanding of the mechanisms of speciation in insects.
Pheromone of love
When a molecule of "love pheromone" thrown out by a female peacock eye (Saturnia pyri) hits the male's antennae, the nerve that sends a signal to the brain is irritated and the brain detects a volatile chemical compound. And the male, even if he is ten kilometers from the beautiful lady, literally begins to go crazy and flies at her smell.
Butterfly pheromones are the most stable chemical signals in the insect world, and the antennae of male peacock eyes are three-quarters of hairs sensitive only to female scent.
The female peacock eye pear (Saturnia pyri) begins to emit pheromones, barely emerging from the pupa / Sergey_Fotogray.
However, males can also stimulate females to mate. For example, male specimens of the Blaberus species - cockroaches living in the tropical rainforests of South and Central America - raise their wings perpendicular to the abdomen when courting, and then sharply lower them. This maneuver allows them to spray their pheromones over a large area and attract many females.
Crush morally and chemically
Pheromones, especially gamophions, are volatile chemicals associated with puberty and behavior that are found in some mammals. These substances trigger a host of behavioral and physiological responses. Thus, volatile pheromones contained in the urine of a male can accelerate the puberty of females, attract them, block pregnancy from another male, and suppress the normal development of spermatogenesis in young males.
Studies have shown that a small dense accumulation of round cells at the tip of the nose - the so-called Grunberg ganglia - is responsible for the perception of pheromones in mice. Mice lacking this important organ do not react to the chemical signals of their fellows, but they smell food no worse than them - the absence of Grünberg ganglia does not in any way affect the normal sense of smell.
Similar reactions to the so-called sex pheromones have been recorded in lower primates, such as lemurs. Some scientists are trying to find a similar thing in great apes and humans, but so far without success.
Alfiya Enikeeva