Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 28 October 1983:
Vol. 222. no. 4622, pp. 419 - 421
DOI: 10.1126/science.222.4622.419
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Male Esterase 6 Catalyzes the Synthesis of a Sex Pheromone in Drosophila melanogaster Females

SURESH D. MANE 1, LAURIE TOMPKINS 2, and ROLLIN C. RICHMOND 3

1 Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405
2 Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
3 Department of Biology, Indiana University

Esterase 6, a component of the seminal fluid of Drosophila melanogaster males, hydrolyzes cis-vaccenyl acetate, a lipid made only by males, to cis-vaccenyl alcohol. This reaction occurs in the female reproductive tract and is virtually complete within 6 hours after copulation. Both the alcohol and the acetate decrease the number of matings among pairs of virgin flies in which the female is treated topically with these substances. Although females tested 10 minutes after copulation elicit less courtship than virgin females, females tested 6 hours after copulation stimulate even less courtship if they received active esterase 6 in the seminal fluid of their respective mates. Either the alcohol or a derivative appears to be an antiaphrodisiac that decreases courtship elicited by inseminated females and thus reduces the probability of further mating. Thus the activity of the pheromone depends on a final reaction which occurs in the female, using both substrate and enzyme provided by the male.

Submitted on January 28, 1983
Revised on July 12, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Wired for Sex: The Neurobiology of Drosophila Mating Decisions.
B. J. Dickson (2008)
Science 322, 904-909
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Divergent and conserved features in the spatial expression of the Drosophila pseudoobscura esterase-5B gene and the esterase-6 gene of Drosophila melanogaster.
N. A. Tamarina, M. Z. Ludwig, and R. C. Richmond (1997)
PNAS 94, 7735-7741
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)