Pheromones

The term pheromone is derived from the Greek words pheran (to transfer) and horman
(to excite). Pheromones are volatile chemical compounds secreted by insects and animals.
They act as chemical signals between individuals influencing physiology and behavior in a manner
similar to hormones. Pheromones are important to a variety of behaviors including mate attraction,
territorality, trail marking, danger alarms, and social recognition and regulation.
So it can say Pheromones are the chemical compound produced by an organism for the purpose
of communicating with other organism of the same species: to attract members of the opposite sex;
to spread an alarm; to mark the trail to food; or simply to carry the message.
These intraspecific signals are of a specific composition, produced by special exocrine glands, and
released at specific times to inhibit or stimulate specific biological functions in other organisms.
Pheromones are released outside of the organism's body to coordinate behavioral and physiological
activities among individuals of the population. This is in contrast to hormones, which are internally
released chemicals that regulate body metabolism. Pheromonal communication is widespread
among animals and microorganisms, but has been most extensively studied in insects and
vertebrates. Pheromones that directly influence behavior by stimulating an immediate change in
behavior are termed releasers. In contrast, primer pheromones stimulate a long-term physiological
effect that later influences a behavioral response. For example, a female moth may produce an
airborne chemical mixture that causes co specific male moths to fly toward the female.
This is an example of a releaser pheromone. In contrast, the pheromones released by some social
insect queens, that inhibit ovarian development of her female progeny, are called primers.
Pheromones may be categorized according to the type of behavior they coordinate. Stimulants elicit
a particular behavioral response such as locomotion, egg-laying, or feeding, while deterrents inhibit
one of these activities. Pheromones that cause an animal to make oriented movements toward the
source of the pheromone are termed attractants, in contrast to repellents that stimulate movements
away from the source. Pheromones that cause a decrease in locomotion or turning behaviors are
termed arrestants.
Pheromones may also be grouped according to their function for the species. Sexual or courtship
pheromones mediate attraction of mates and their courtship behaviors. Moth pheromones are good
examples of the power and specificity of such sexual attractants. Males of some saturniid moths are
able to locate females emitting pheromones as far as 7 mi (11.27 km) away. Aggregation
pheromones function to attract both sexes to a particular area for feeding, egg-laying, or mating. For
example, some beetles attacking trees will produce pheromones to attract both sexes to the site.
Ants lay down chemical trails to a food source; such trail pheromones are common among social
insects. Social animals may also release pheromones for defensive purposes to alert the group to
defend themselves from an approaching intruder. Honeybee workers release such an alarm
pheromone from their sting apparatus during their stinging attacks. Territorial or marking
pheromones function to communicate the location of an individual's territory. Pheromones then are
important means of regulating many behaviors among individuals in a population.
Investigations into chemical communication systems are revealing that mixtures of different
chemicals released in different concentrations elicit different behavioral responses. Even a slight
change to one chemical of a pheromonal blend may drastically alter the response of the receiving
organism. Such studies indicate the great complexity of pheromonal communication systems.
Also, most organisms integrate pheromones with other methods of communication, resulting in an
even more complex communication system.
 Properties of pheromones: The general size of phermone molecules can be limited to
about 5 to 20 carbons and a molecular weight between 80 and 300. This is because below 5 carbons
and a molecular weight of 80, very few kinds of molecules can be manufactured and stored by
glandular tissue. Above 5 carbons and a molecular weight of 80, the molecular diversity increases
rapidly and so does the olfactory efficiency. Once you get above 20 carbons and a molecular weight
of 300, the diversity becomes so great and the molecules are so big that they no longer are
advantageous. They are also more expensive to make and transport and are less volatile. In general,
most sex pheromones are larger than other pheromones. In insects, they have a molecular weight
between 200 and 300 and most alarm substances are between 100 and 200. The functional groups
those are found in pheromones are aldehyde (–CHO), ester (–COOR), hydroxy (–OH) and the
double bond. A simple example of a pheromone is geraniol, which belongs to monoterpene found in
roses, is the recruiting pheromone of the honeybee. When a honeybee encounters a source of food,
it excretes gerinol. This, in turn attracts other bees to that site. Citral another monoterpene, is also
used by the honeybee for the same purpose. Another type of releaser pheromone is called an alarm
pheromone. When one disturbs an ant that is working near an anthill, the disturbed ant will excrete a
pheromone that causes ants around it to become excited. While different species of ants appear to
have different alarm H (CH2)2CH=C(CH3)(CH2)2CH=C(CH)2
pheromones. Citral and
dendrolasin are the two CHO H O H
typical types of pheromones
and both of them belongs
toterpene. It is interesting to dendrolasin
note that citral is a recruiting citral
pheromone for the honeybee recruiting pheromones alarm pheromones
is also the alarm pheromone for the ant Atta sexdens. But all the pheromones are not terpenes.
Until now comparatively very little about pheromone is known, it is still difficult to generalize
about their structure. An excellent illustration of a non-terpene pheromone is the alarm pheromone
of the honey bee, which is a ester called isoamy acetate, (CH3)2CHCH2CH2OC(O)CH3.
If a beekeeper is stung by a bee, it does not take long for other bees to come and attack the spot
previously sting. The reason is that the first bee released the alarm pheromone when it stung the
keeper and that served to attract other bees. Humans smell isoamyl acetate and detect the order of
bananas. Of the various types of pheromones, none has received as much attention as have the so
called „sex attractants‟. Sex pheromones often serve to inform the male of a species of the
availability of a female. For example, the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandls (Boheman), excretes a
sex attractant called H H
grandisol. Sex pheromones CH3 O
C=C
serve other functions as CH2CH2OH CH3(CH2)2CH2 CH2(CH2)4CH2O C CH3
well. For example, a sex H
pheromone causes the male C=CH2
cabbage looper to exhibit CH3
copulatory behavior in the (Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate
Sex attracvtant grandisol (sex pheromone)
absence of a female.
(Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate is a sex pheromone of this type. The potency of some sex pheromones is
astounding. For example, sex pheromone of the silkworm moth bombykol, can attract the male even
in concentrations of approximately 200 molecules per milliliter of air! Put differently, one female
silkworm moth contains enough sex attractant to stimulate over one billion males. Bombykol is an
alkadienol and, as can be seen from the structure in the
figure, is not that different from the sex attractant of the CH3 CH2 CH2 CH=CH CH=CH (CH2)8 CH2OH
cabbage looper. Bombykol

2
 The use of the sex attractants to control insect pests is being considered as a substitute for the
widespread use of insecticides. One approach is to lure unsuspecting males to traps with the aid of a
sex attractant. The males could then be killed chemically or by other means.
The use of chemicals to heighten male interest in copulation is also important in animal husbandry.
For example, it is common for farmers to spray the hindquarters of female swine with an attractant
in attempts to increase the size of their herds.
Now, the question is “Do humans excrete pheromones?” The answers, at this stage, do not yet
know. However, the fact that sexually mature males and females frequently respond differently to
some odorific compounds suggests that sex related pheromones for humans might exist. But if they
do exist, the problem of human behavior is so complex that it may be a long while before they can
be detected and evaluated.