U.S.-New Zealand Cooperative Research: Comparative Role of Pheromone Biosynthesis Activating Neuropeptide (PBAN) in Moth Species

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This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Wendell L. Roelofs of Cornell University and Dr. Stephen Foster of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIRO). Over the last two decades, researchers have built a knowledge-base of the biosynthetic enzyme pathways through which production of pheromone located in glands and other organs, is activated by the brain-hormone, biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN). Critical unanswered questions,however, have pervaded these studies: How did these hormonal systems and their unique biosynthetic enzymes and brain-hormonal control of pheromone production, which are species-specific, evolve? This cooperative project will focus on this research question, that is, the evolution of how PBAN effects pheromone production in several moth species. The project represents excellent collaboration between New Zealand and U.S. researchers. The New Zealand group has extensive experience and knowledge of the only moth species known in the world to exhibit the pattern of primitive to more advanced pheromone biosynthetic pathways within the same genus. The U.S. group will apply the series of techniques, which they developed, for studying the action of PBAN, and provide synthetic PBAN for the study. The research is important fundamental work in advancing basic understanding of evolution of the brain-hormone, PBAN. Also, since hormones cause chemically-based radical changes in behavior, the study has the potential for results relevant to regulating insect behavior in areas such as cardiac activity and blood sugar.