Pheromonal Communication in the European House Dust Mite, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus

Abstract

Despite the sanitary importance of the European house dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Trouessart, 1897), the pheromonal communication in this species has not been sufficiently studied. Headspace analysis using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) revealed that nerol, neryl formate, pentadecane, (6Z,9Z)-6,9-heptadecadiene, and (Z)-8-heptadecene are released by both sexes whereas neryl propionate was released by males only. Tritonymphs did not produce any detectable volatiles. In olfactometer experiments, pentadecane and neryl propionate were attractive to both sexes as well as to tritonymphs. (Z)-8-heptadecene was only attractive to male mites. Therefore it is discussed that pentadecane and neryl propionate are aggregation pheromones and (Z)-8-heptadecene is a sexual pheromone of the European house dust mite D. pteronyssinus. To study the potential use of pheromones in dust mite control, long-range olfactometer experiments were conducted showing that mites can be attracted to neryl propionate over distances of at least 50 cm. This indicates that mite pheromones might be useable to monitor the presence or absence of mites in the context of control strategies.

Biosynthetic pathway of aliphatic formates via a Baeyer–Villiger oxidation in mechanism present in astigmatid mites

“…S5). Collectively, the current data are consistent with the 13 C atom derived from [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] C] stearic acid as selectively present in the formyl moiety and not significantly incorporated into other carbon positions.…”

“…4). Given the rather surprising and strong [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] C enrichment measured, we present these findings as evidence that 8,11-F17 is biosynthesized without going through the process of dehomologation, which-if predominant-would oppositely remove the 1-13 C label present. We propose that this process similarly occurs for 8-F17, although we do present any parallel GC/EI-MS evidence for this example because of suboptimal ionization parameters.…”

“…The well-known house dust mites, D. pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinare, are both major allergens, causing atopic diseases, such as asthma, rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis (13). Recent studies have shown that lipidic components, such as formate and hydrocarbon, function to attract the house dust mites and have the potential to be used for mite control (3,13). Unlike more ubiquitous lipids, the biosynthetic pathways of chain-like formates present in mites have not been previously examined.…”

Short‐distance attraction of saproxylic Heteroptera to olfactory cues

“…() – to fresh dead wood, fungal fruiting bodies and fungal mycelia using an olfactometer, which is a widely applied method to study arthropod behaviour (e.g. Hovorka et al ., ; Steidle et al ., ). We tested the hypothesis that for short‐distance orientation, A. obtectus relies mostly on chemical cues from mycelia of its primary fungal nutritional source, Fomitopsis pinicola ((Sw.:Fr.)…”

“…Nevertheless, it remains unclear how suitable fungi are located at short distances (Saint-Germain et al, 2010) To study the mechanisms of short-distance orientation of saproxylic heteropterans, we tested the attraction of Aradus obtectus (Vasarhelyi)the most abundant species in the study of Seibold et al (2014) to fresh dead wood, fungal fruiting bodies and fungal mycelia using an olfactometer, which is a widely applied method to study arthropod behaviour (e.g. Hovorka et al, 2005;Steidle et al, 2014). We tested the hypothesis that for short-distance orientation, A. obtectus relies mostly on chemical cues from mycelia of its primary fungal nutritional source, Fomitopsis pinicola ((Sw.:Fr.)…”