Pheromone evolution and sexual behavior in Drosophila are shaped by male sensory exploitation of other males.

Animals exhibit a spectacular array of traits to attract mates. Understanding the evolutionary origins of sexual features and preferences is a fundamental problem in evolutionary biology, and the mechanisms remain highly controversial. In some species, females choose mates based on direct benefits conferred by the male to the female and her offspring. Thus, female preferences are thought to originate and coevolve with male traits. In contrast, sensory exploitation occurs when expression of a male trait takes advantage of preexisting sensory biases in females. Here, we document in Drosophila a previously unidentified example of sensory exploitation of males by other males through the use of the sex pheromone CH503. We use mass spectrometry, high-performance liquid chromatography, and behavioral analysis to demonstrate that an antiaphrodisiac produced by males of the melanogaster subgroup also is effective in distant Drosophila relatives that do not express the pheromone. We further show that species that produce the pheromone have become less sensitive to the compound, illustrating that sensory adaptation occurs after sensory exploitation. Our findings provide a mechanism for the origin of a sex pheromone and show that sensory exploitation changes male sexual behavior over evolutionary time.

Synthesis and bioassay of the eight analogues of the CH503 male pheromone (3-acetoxy-11,19-octacosadien-1-ol) of the Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly.

Eight analogues of (3R,11Z,19Z)-CH503 (3-acetoxy-11,19-octacosadien-1-ol), the anti-aphrodisiac pheromone of male Drosophila melanogaster, were synthesized for a bioassay. These were the enantiomers of 3-acetoxy-11,19-octacosadiyn-1-ol (1), 3-acetoxyoctacosan-1-ol (2), (Z)-3-acetoxy-11-octacosen-1-ol (3), and (Z)-3-acetoxy-19-octacosen-1-ol (4). None of them were pheromonally active, indicating that the two double bonds at C-11 and C-19 were necessary for bioactivity.

Synthesis of all the stereoisomers of 6-methyl-2-octadecanone, 14-methyl-2-octadecanone, and 6,14-dimethyl-2-octadecanone, sex pheromone components of the Lyclene dharma dharma moth, from the enantiomers of citronellal.

The enantiomers of citronellal were converted to all the stereoisomers of 6-methyl-2-octadecanone, 14-methyl-2-octadecanone, and 6,14-dimethyl-2-octadecanone, the female-produced sex pheromone components of the Lyclene dharma dharma moth. Three well-established procedures, the Wittig reaction, alkylation of alkynes, and acetoacetic ester synthesis, were employed for the carbon-carbon bond formation to connect the building blocks.

Synthesis of (1R,7Z)-1-methyl-7-hexadecenyl acetate, the female sex pheromone of the honey locust gall midge.

(1R,7Z)-1-Methyl-7-hexadecenyl acetate (1), the female sex pheromone of the honey locust gall midge (Dasineura gleditchiae), was synthesized from 6-hepten-1-ol in an 8.9% overall yield (eight steps). Hydrolytic kinetic resolution of (±)-1,2-epoxy-8-heptadecyne was the key step in the synthesis.

Metathesis-mediated synthesis of (R)-10-methyl-2-tridecanone, the southern corn rootworm pheromone.

(R)-10-Methyl-2-tridecanone, the female sex pheromone of the southern corn rootworm (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber), was synthesized in 9 steps from methyl (S)-3-hydroxy-2-methylpropanoate in a 15.7% overall yield. Olefin cross metathesis between (R)-6-methyl-1-nonene and 5-hexen-2-one employing Grubbs' first-generation catalyst was the key step of the synthesis.