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Isolation of a Female-Emitted Sex Pheromone Component of the Fungus Gnat, Lycoriella ingenua, Attractive to Males

Journal of Chemical Ecology volume 41, pages 1127–1136 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Lycoriella ingenua Dufour (Diptera: Sciaridae) is acknowledged as the major pest species of the white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, throughout the world. Components of the female-produced sex pheromone of this species were identified previously as C15-C18 n-alkanes, with the major component n-heptadecane, and shown to be attractive to L. mali. However, a subsequent report could not repeat this work. We reinvestigated the sex pheromone of this species by confirming that virgin females were attractive to males in a Y-tube bioassay and by collection of extracts from virgin females. Extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to electroantennographic detection, and by the less widely-used technique of gas chromatography coupled to a behavioral bioassay to detect compounds causing wing-fanning and copulatory abdomen curling in males. A single, behaviorally-active pheromone component was isolated and characterized by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. This component was definitively not n-heptadecane or any of the other C15-C19 n-alkanes reported previously, but is proposed to be a sesquiterpene alcohol having analytical characteristics that closely matched those of reference germacradienols.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Nate McCartney of the Jim Tumlinson laboratory at Penn State for his help in obtaining mass spectra on the HP-5MS and DB-225 columns. We are grateful for the helpful discussions concerning mass spectra of germacradienols that we had with Dr. Cam Oehlschlager of ChemTica Internacional, Prof. Jocelyn Millar at the University of California, Riverside, Prof. David Cane and Dr. Wayne Zhou of Brown University, and Prof. Dr. Stefan Schulz of the Technical University Braunschweig. Collaboration continues with the latter two laboratories and with Prof. David Hall, University of Greenwich, to determine the structure of this germacradienol. This project was supported by USDA/AFRI/SCRI grant No. 2012-51181-19912 entitled, “Addressing Management Gaps with Sustainable Disease and Pest Tactics for Mushroom Production”, Prof. David M. Beyer, Penn State University, Principal Investigator. Support for Dr. Haibin Chen’s participation comes from the Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest in China, Grant No. 201203036.

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Affiliations

  1. Chemical Ecology Laboratory, Department of Entomology, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Stefanos S. Andreadis, Kevin R. Cloonan, Andrew J. Myrick, Haibin Chen & Thomas C. Baker

  2. Institute of Health and Environmental Ecology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, 325035, People’s Republic of China

    Haibin Chen

Authors
  1. Stefanos S. Andreadis
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  2. Kevin R. Cloonan
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  3. Andrew J. Myrick
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  4. Haibin Chen
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  5. Thomas C. Baker
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Correspondence to Thomas C. Baker.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, that bias our work in any way.

Additional information

Stefanos S. Andreadis and Kevin R. Cloonan contributed equally to this work.

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Andreadis, S.S., Cloonan, K.R., Myrick, A.J. et al. Isolation of a Female-Emitted Sex Pheromone Component of the Fungus Gnat, Lycoriella ingenua, Attractive to Males. J Chem Ecol 41, 1127–1136 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-015-0650-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-015-0650-2

Keywords

  • Mushroom fly
  • Fungus gnat
  • Female extract
  • Y-tube olfactometer
  • Gas chromatography/electroantennographic detection
  • Gas chromatography/behavioral bioassays