1/1 2011/2/14 下午 04:21

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1 life.time.mk 1/1 2011/2/14 下午 04:21 Newly discovered squid pheromone sparks extreme aggression on contact - ScienceDaily Squid Sex Chemical Sheds Light on Aggression - Discovery Male Squids Kick Ass at Touch of Female Pheromone - Wired News All»

2 1/8 2011/2/14 下午 04:21 skip to main content earth space tech animals dinosaurs archaeology history human video rss feeds discovery.com Discovery News > Animal News > Squid Sex Chemical Sheds Light on Aggression THE GIST By Jessica Marshall Thu Feb 10, :31 PM ET 2 Comments Leave a Comment Print Facebook Tweet Digg Yahoo! Buzz

3 2/8 2011/2/14 下午 04:21 A molecule found on the surface of squid eggs turns male squid into aggressive fighters when they touch it. The molecule may act as a signal to males that there are fertile females nearby and motivate them to fight to mate. The discovery may have implications for understanding aggression. enlarge Loligo squids approaching and touching the egg capsules, which harbor the pheromone that initiates high-level aggression among males. Click to enlarge this image. Roger Hanlon RELATED CONTENT Called the chameleons of the sea, cuttlefish can change their skin color and texture to both confuse their prey. Glowing Squid Found in Indian Ocean's Depths: Big Pic Clever, Tiny Squid Roamed Pre-Dino Seas RELATED TOPICS Animals Eggs Life Science Mild-mannered male squid turn into furious fighting machines when their tentacles brush a chemical on the surface of squid eggs, a finding that could give insights into how aggression works. The discovery also reveals how male squid compete for female mating partners. "I think that this is really a novel and kind of wonderful addition to our understanding of how aggression might work," said Russell Fernald of Stanford University, who was not a part of the study. Researchers diving on squid spawning grounds had noticed that not just female squid would hang around the many mop-like clusters of egg capsules. "We noticed underwater that the males were attracted to the eggs, too. This made no sense. All the eggs are fertilized already. This caught our attention," lead author Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. told Discovery News. A key to solving the puzzle came during a Cape Cod dive. "There was absolutely nothing that was

4 3/8 2011/2/14 下午 04:21 happening, it was Deadsville." Hanlon said. So, he fetched some squid eggs from the boat and brought them back to the dive site. "I just put the squid eggs on the bottom. Within a minute or two, one bold male squid went down and touched them. He came back up to the squid above him and started fighting with other squid." Other males started touching the eggs. "Within minutes, hundreds of male squid were fighting over females," he said. "That was a momentous observation. We realized that the eggs kicked off the entire sexual selection process." Since then, the team has been working to determine exactly what it is about the eggs that makes the males go berserk. In a paper published today in Current Biology, the researchers report the answer. It is a single molecule: a pheromone protein incorporated into the outer layer of egg capsules by glands in the female reproductive tract. The researchers isolated the compound from the eggs, showing that when the molecule was wiped on the outside of a glass jar with squid eggs inside (a visual cue so male squid would come over and take a look), just touching the outside of the jar was enough to trigger the male squid's aggression. The behavior escalates from raising their arms at each other to bumping their fins against each other to grappling and trying to bite each other. "It's pretty stunning," Hanlon noted. "They're just going from calm to the highest level of aggression they have." The team also used genetic techniques to produce the molecule in another type of cell and showed that version had the same effect. This was further proof that they had found the molecular culprit. But why should a molecule found on fertilized eggs release such fury? "Our explanation is that this is a signal to the males that there are receptive, fertile females in the immediate vicinity," Hanlon said, though he noted that they can't prove that, since the squid aren't talking. Females mate with many males in the breeding process and have some choice over which sperm they use to fertilize their eggs. "Females likely benefit by obtaining sperm from the most vigorous competitors," the authors wrote. The findings may have implications beyond squid biology. "I think this is the kind of study that makes us rethink what is aggression and what are its causations and mechanisms of action," Hanlon said. "I think there might be some simpler, more direct pathways than we envision. You've got this chemical just going, 'whap!'" The molecule shares some similarity to molecules found in human seminal fluid, and Fernald noted that in some cases, molecules that act as pheromones in some organisms -- carrying signals from one individual to another -- act as hormones in others, carrying internal signals within an individual. "Now it will be interesting to see if it is used by animals in another context once we know more about it," Fernald said. "We may find something comparable lurking in the human genome or in other vertebrates." 2 Comments Post a Comment Print Facebook Tweet Digg Yahoo! Buzz Friend's Name:

5 4/8 2011/2/14 下午 04:21 Your Name: Message: submit reset close NEXT STORY: Baby Royal Antelope Makes Public Debut: Big Pic next YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE Giant Squid: How Do You Film One? Fish Had Sex First, Fossils Suggest

6 5/8 2011/2/14 下午 04:21 You're It! Gorillas Play Tag Birds and the Bees: Animals' Mating Strategies Revealed COMMENTS (2) 登入 必須登入, 點選這裡開始 分享 此頁面 新增圖片 追蹤 Echo 2 個意見 管理 Donna L. Evans I just don't understand how people can eat such an intelligent, unique creature such as a squid or even worse, an octopus. These animals think, emote, problem-solve and should be revered, not eaten. People need to start thinking about the animals themselves when making a choice to eat one. 3 天前, 下午 11:33:48 標記 回覆 Denver Thomas Cayetano All animals think, some more complex than others but they all think. They only difference is wheter humans are able to figure out their methods of thought. 2 天前, 上午 05:47:42 標記 回覆 Advertisement

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