BIOL 127 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Chemical Ecology, Stridulation, Olfaction
Document Summary
Chemical ecology: chemical ecology is the study of chemicals in involved in the interactions between living organisms & between organisms and their abiotic environment. Insects can interact with their environment in multiple ways: visual (sight) light/luminescence, coloration/pigmentation, patterns, auditory (hearing, stridulation (rubbing, wingbeat frequency, drumming, tactile (touch, antennation, vibrations in substrate/media, chemical (smell, taste, etc. , host plants, other insects, predators or prey. Insects use chemical sensing for many things: locating and selecting food and habitat, avoiding predators and other dangers, locating mates. Insects possess chemoreceptors in many places on their bodies: chemoreceptors: transmembrane proteins expressed in sensory neurons. Chemoreception (chemical signaling: transduction of a chemical substance into a biological signal (action potentials in the nervous system). Two types of chemoreceptors: olfactory receptors (ors, gustatory receptors (grs, olfactory receptor neurons (orns) express or proteins, gustatory receptor neurons (grns) express gr proteins. Detection of volatile chemicals (odorants) by orns found in antennae.
