The odor of mimicry

蝴蝶是研究物种形成、进化和拟态的模式生物，因为它们具有复杂的拟态关系。虽然光学模仿研究得很好，但它对通过符号化学物质进行化学通信的影响研究得很少。该项目的第一阶段集中在嗅觉器官中极高的化学多样性，其中一些在蝴蝶中可能含有多达350种化合物，在整个拟态组中可能含有多达1000种化合物。在所要求的扩展项目中，重点是一些化学上复杂的关键成分，其关键作用在第一个项目阶段出现。这些是一些大环内酯，一种迄今为止尚未明确表征的结构未知的进一步化合物，以及一些多不饱和酯。此外，第一个项目出现了新的方面，现在也将对其进行调查。在一些也属于螺旋体的Eueides物种中，表面脂质被发现代表了一类新的化合物，并且明显不同于以前已知的昆虫表面脂质。所有这些化合物的拟议结构已经或正在开发中。为了验证所提出的结构的正确性，这些化合物将通过有机合成来制备。所得材料将用于结构验证，确定化合物的手性并测试其生物活性。这些测试和其他工作将由Jiggins（剑桥）、Dasmahapatra（约克）和Merrill（慕尼黑）小组进行，他们也可能进行基因组分析，以确定化合物可能的生物合成途径，并解决进化生物学问题。该项目的前一阶段侧重于雄性发出的化学信号。现在，这将通过分析雌性的气味物质来补充。一些证据表明，雌性的气味对交配成功很重要。为此，必须对雌性进行气味分析，并通过气相色谱/质谱法和其他方法进行调查。随后，将合成这些物质，并提供给合作小组进行生物试验。

Heliconius butterflies are model organisms for the study of speciation, evolution, and mimicry because of their complex mimicry relationships. While optical mimicry is well studied, its influence on chemical communication through semiochemicals is less studied. The first phase of the project focused on the extremely high chemical diversity in scent organs, some of which could contain up to 350 compounds in a butterfly and up to 1,000 compounds in an entire mimicry group. In the requested extension project, the focus is on some chemically complex key components whose key role emerged in the first project phase. These are some macrocyclic lactones, a so far poorly characterized further compound of unknown structure, and some polyunsaturated esters. Furthermore, new aspects emerged in the first project, which will now also be investigated. In some Eueides species, which also belong to the heliconiines, surface lipids were discovered that represent a novel class of compounds and are clearly different from all previously known surface lipids from insects. Proposed structures have been or are being developed for all of these compounds. To verify the correctness of the proposed structures, these compounds will be prepared by organic syntheses. The resulting material will be used for structure verification, to determine the chirality of the compounds and to test their biological activity. These tests and other work will be carried out with the Jiggins (Cambridge), Dasmahapatra (York), and Merrill (Munich) groups, who may also perform genome analyses to identify possible biosynthetic pathways to the compounds and to address evolutionary biology questions. The previous phase of the project focused on chemical signals emanating from males. This will now be complemented by the analysis of the scent substances of females. Some evidence suggests that the scent of females is important for mating success. For this purpose, scent analyses of the females have to be performed and investigations by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and other methods have to be carried out. Subsequently, the substances will be synthesized and made available for biotests with the cooperating groups.