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Stökl, Johannes ; Strutz, Antonia ; Dafni, Amots ; Svatoš, Aleš ; Doubsky, Jan ; Knaden, Markus ; Sachse, Silke ; Hansson, Bill S. ; Stensmyr, Marcus C.:
A Deceptive Pollination System Targeting Drosophilids through Olfactory Mimicry of Yeast.
In: Current Biology.
Bd. 20
(2010)
Heft 20
.
- S. 1846-1852.
ISSN 1879-0445
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.09.033
Abstract
In deceptive pollination, insects are bamboozled into performing nonrewarded pollination. A prerequisite for the evolutionary stability in such systems is that the plants manage to generate a perfect sensory impression of a desirable object in the insect nervous system [1]. The study of these plants can provide important insights into sensory preference of their visiting insects. Here, we present the first description of a deceptive pollination system that specifically targets drosophilid flies. We show that the examined plant (Arum palaestinum) accomplishes its deception through olfactory mimicry of fermentation, a strategy that represents a novel pollination syndrome. The lily odor is composed of volatiles characteristic of yeast, and produces in Drosophila melanogaster an antennal detection pattern similar to that elicited by a range of fermentation products. By functional imaging, we show that the lily odors target a specific subset of odorant receptors (ORs), which include the most conserved OR genes in the drosophilid olfactome. Furthermore, seven of eight visiting drosophilid species show a congruent olfactory response pattern to the lily, in spite of comprising species pairs separated by ∼40 million years [2], showing that the lily targets a basal function of the fly nose, shared by species with similar ecological preference.