1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Nest Recognition Chemical Cue of Social Insects and its ecological role
| Project/Area Number |
04660051
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
植物保護
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| Research Institution | Kyoto Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMAOKA Ryohei Kyoto Institute of Technology Applied Biology Associate Professor, 繊維学部, 助教授 (00111948)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1992 – 1993
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| Keywords | Captotermes formosanas / Nest recognition factor / Steroid Ketone / Cholestanon / Sitostanon / Arrestant of termite / Aggregation |
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| Research Abstract |
One big characterisity of social insects is that they live in some kind of selter which is called nest. The worker cast member leave the nest to search food but always come back to the nest. What is the factor that makes the social insect come back to the nest. We observed that a small pieces of the termite Coptotermes formosanus nest aggregates the nest members. A chloroform extracts of the nest applied on a filter paper also aggregate the nest member. We started the isolation of the aggregation pheromone. After purification by silica gel column chromatography, the attractancy was lost and only arrestant activity was present in one of the fractions. In the active fraction, we identified several kinds of steroid compounds. We prepared the authentic steroids and the arrestant activity of each compound was checked by bioassay. As the results, cholestanon and sitostanon showed potent arrestant activity that was equivalent to the chloroform extract of the nest. The cholestanon and sitostanaon are not present in termite body extract. These substances are produced in gut of the termite.
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