Antifungal activity of a termite queen pheromone against egg-mimicking termite ball fungi

摘要: The sophisticated colony organization of eusocial insects is attributed to their elaborate chemical communication systems. Pheromones mediate most behaviors involved in including foraging, defense, brood care, and caste regulation. number candidate compounds available regulate multiple systems may be biosynthetically finite the production several instead a single one more costly. Therefore, strong selection pressures encourage use natural products for many purposes. Such versatility signal substances especially characteristic queen pheromones Hymenoptera. However, little known about multifunctionality recently identified termite pheromone. Here, we demonstrate that volatile pheromone termite, Reticulitermes speratus (Kolbe), have fungistatic properties. Application n-butyl-n-butyrate 2-methyl-1-butanol significantly reduced germination rates egg-mimicking parasitic ball fungus. These also suppressed mycelial growth fungus some entomopathogenic fungi. inhibitory activity each substance differed among fungal strains. Termites likely employ these antimicrobial volatiles protect eggs queens, secondarily as agents informing fertility. This study supports notion evolutionary parsimony, wherein are originally used defensive communicative function develops secondarily, which well-documented social