PHEREMONES. Probably something you've heard of before, but for many of us out there, not necessarily a word we could define. We may be vaguely aware that they have something to do with smells, possibly something to do with girls' hair, and potentially something to do with sex.
And then there's food. It's probably not a pheremone, but there are definitely those among us who swear that the taste of chocolate, the scent of a mango, or even eating oysters, can pique our libidos and turn us on.
Strictly speaking, pheremones are chemical messengers that are transported outside of the body and have the ability to induce hormonal or behavioural changes in others.[1] It has long been postulated that animals attract their partners by releasing sex pheromones which elicit intuitive courtship and mating behaviours from their recipient.[2] However, a study conceived by Yael Grosjean and Richard Benton of the Center for Integrative Genomics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and published in this month’s edition of Nature [3] has demonstrated for the first time that certain receptors found in the olfactory (“smell-related”) sensory neurons of male drosophila fruit flies (ionotropic gluatamate receptor 84a, to be exact, or IR84a for short) are not activated by fly-derived pheromones, but by the aromatic odours phenylacetic acid and phenylacetalydehyde – both of which are commonly found in fruit and plant tissues.
Benton, Grosjean and their colleagues were able to show that male courtship behaviour in drosophila flies is markedly increased when IR84a receptors are activated by the above fruit-derived odours. Conversely, in drosophila whose IR84a receptors are mutated, courtship behaviour is significantly reduced.
Interneurons forming part of the same messenger systems as IR84a receptors innervate the pheromone processing centre in the brain.
What does this mean?
In short, the smell of certain fruits is genuinely eliciting a physiological response to turn male fruit flies on. And there is no reason why similar messenger systems couldn’t apply in humans.
And then there's food. It's probably not a pheremone, but there are definitely those among us who swear that the taste of chocolate, the scent of a mango, or even eating oysters, can pique our libidos and turn us on.
Strictly speaking, pheremones are chemical messengers that are transported outside of the body and have the ability to induce hormonal or behavioural changes in others.[1] It has long been postulated that animals attract their partners by releasing sex pheromones which elicit intuitive courtship and mating behaviours from their recipient.[2] However, a study conceived by Yael Grosjean and Richard Benton of the Center for Integrative Genomics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and published in this month’s edition of Nature [3] has demonstrated for the first time that certain receptors found in the olfactory (“smell-related”) sensory neurons of male drosophila fruit flies (ionotropic gluatamate receptor 84a, to be exact, or IR84a for short) are not activated by fly-derived pheromones, but by the aromatic odours phenylacetic acid and phenylacetalydehyde – both of which are commonly found in fruit and plant tissues.
Benton, Grosjean and their colleagues were able to show that male courtship behaviour in drosophila flies is markedly increased when IR84a receptors are activated by the above fruit-derived odours. Conversely, in drosophila whose IR84a receptors are mutated, courtship behaviour is significantly reduced.
Interneurons forming part of the same messenger systems as IR84a receptors innervate the pheromone processing centre in the brain.
What does this mean?
In short, the smell of certain fruits is genuinely eliciting a physiological response to turn male fruit flies on. And there is no reason why similar messenger systems couldn’t apply in humans.
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