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Use of bilateral information to determine the walking direction during orientation to a pheromone source in the silkmoth Bombyx mori

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Abstract

Odor source localization is an important animal behavior. Male moths locate mates by tracking sex pheromone emitted by conspecific females. During this type of behavior, males exhibit a combination of upwind surge and zigzagging flight. Similarly, the male walking moth Bombyx mori responds to transient pheromone exposure with a surge in movement, followed by sustained zigzagging walking. The initial surge direction is known to be influenced by the pheromone input pattern. Here, we identified the sensory input patterns that determine the initial walking direction of males. We first quantified the stimulus by measuring electroantennogram values, which were used as a reference for subsequent tests. We used a brief stimulus pulse to examine the relationship between sensory stimulus patterns and the turning direction of initial surge. We found that the difference in input timing and intensity between left and right antennae affected the walking direction, indicating that B. mori integrate bilateral pheromone information during orientation behavior. When we tested pheromone stimulation for longer periods, turning behavior was suppressed, which was induced by stimulus cessation. This study contributes toward understanding efficient strategies for odor-source localization that is utilized by walking insects.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Shigeru Matsuyama (Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba) for providing purified bombykol. This research was supported by: Research and Development of the Next-Generation Integrated Simulation of Living Matter, part of the Development and Use of the Next-Generation Supercomputer Project; a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (18370028) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); and a Sasagawa Research Grant from the Japan Science Society.

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  1. Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Tetsuya Takasaki

  2. Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-8904, Japan

    Shigehiro Namiki & Ryohei Kanzaki

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  1. Tetsuya Takasaki
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  2. Shigehiro Namiki
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  3. Ryohei Kanzaki
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Correspondence to Ryohei Kanzaki.

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359_2011_708_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary Figure. 1. Visualization of airflow. Airflow from the stimulus cartridge visualized by TiCl4 is shown. The flow rate was 500 ml/min. The movie was acquired at 30 Hz. Relative intensity change was calculated and shown in pseudocolor. The flow was straight and the diameter of airflow at the position of several centimeters from the cartridge was approximately the same as that of the stimulus cartridge. (TIFF 2629 kb)

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Takasaki, T., Namiki, S. & Kanzaki, R. Use of bilateral information to determine the walking direction during orientation to a pheromone source in the silkmoth Bombyx mori . J Comp Physiol A 198, 295–307 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-011-0708-8

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