Nursery pollination by a moth in Silene latifolia: the role of odours in eliciting antennal and behavioural responses.

Since the 1970s it has been known that the nursery pollinator Hadena bicruris is attracted to the flowers of its most important host plant, Silene latifolia, by their scent. Here we identified important compounds for attraction of this noctuid moth. Gas chromatographic and electroantennographic methods were used to detect compounds eliciting signals in the antennae of the moth. Electrophysiologically active compounds were tested in wind-tunnel bioassays to foraging naïve moths, and the attractivity of these compounds was compared with that to the natural scent of whole S. latifolia flowers. The antennae of moths detected substances of several classes. Phenylacetaldehyde elicited the strongest signals in the antennae, but lilac aldehydes were the most attractive compounds in wind-tunnel bioassays and attracted 90% of the moths tested, as did the scent of single flowers. Our results show that the most common and abundant floral scent compounds in S. latifolia, lilac aldehydes, attracted most of the moths tested, indicating a specific adaptation of H. bicruris to its host plant.

Insect-based BioFETs with improved signal characteristics.

Insect-based BioFETs (biologically sensitive field-effect transistors) with improved signal characteristics have been developed. These BioFETs require a specifically adapted signal interfacing between a FET as signal transducer and an intact insect antenna as biocomponent. Therefore, different field-effect transistors have been fabricated in order to study the signal transfer at the bioelectronic interface. As relevant features of the BioFET, its current-voltage characteristics, the transconductance and the signal-to-noise ratio have been investigated as affected by the choice of gate insulator materials and gate dimensions (width-to-length ratio, thickness of the dielectric layers). The performance of the improved FET arrangement in the isolated-antenna BioFET was validated by employing dilution series of the plant odour component Z-3-hexen-1-ol.

Analysis of volatiles emitted by potato plants by means of a Colorado beetle electroantennographic detector.

An electroantennographic detector based on the antenna of the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, 1824) was used to investigate volatile organic compounds emitted by injured potato plants (Solanum tuberosum L., 1753). Samples were collected on charcoal traps using the CLSA method. Analyses were performed with a GC-EAD-FID setup as well as a GC-MS system. The experiments revealed that several groups of compounds are perceptible to the Colorado potato beetle. The ability of the Colorado potato beetle to detect green leaf odours (e.g. (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol and (E)-2-hexenal), linalool and some terpenes has been noticed before [Visser et al., J. Chem. Ecol. 5 (1979) 13]. In this work the presence of (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, (E)-2-hexenal and linalool in the potato odour could be confirmed. Moreover, beta-myrcene, benzeneethanol, and several sesquiterpenes (e.g. caryophyllene and germacrene-D) were identified. The GC-EAD experiments reveal that apart from the green leaf odours and linalool prominent reactions of the Colorado bettle antenna are induced by benzeneethanol and the sesquiterpene fraction.