title: On-site airborne pheromone sensing.
abstract: Pheromones and other semiochemicals play an important role in the natural world by influencing the behavior of plants, mammals, and insects. In the latter case, species-dependent pheromone communication has numerous applications, including the detection, trapping, monitoring and guiding of insects, as well as pest management in agriculture. On-site sensors are desirable when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are used as semiochemicals. Insects have evolved highly selective sensors for such compounds, so biosensors comprising complete insects, isolated organs or individual proteins can be highly effective. However, isolated insect organs have a limited lifetime as biosensor, so biomimetic approaches are needed for prolonged monitoring, novel applications, or measurements in challenging environments. We discuss the development of on-site biosensors and biomimetic approaches for airborne-pheromone sensing, together with biomimetic VOC sensor systems. Furthermore, the infochemical effect describing the anthropogenic contamination of the ecosystem through semiochemicals, will be considered in the context of novel on-site pheromone sensing-systems.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, JLU Giessen, Giessen, Germany. christoph.wehrenfennig@ap.physik.uni-giessen.de
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wehrenfennig
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schott
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gasch
authors.forename: Rolf Alexander
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Düring
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vilcinskas
authors.forename: Claus-Dieter
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Kohl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012724:Sex Attractants / Q000737:chemistry*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D012724:Sex Attractants