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Peer-reviewedCC BYCommunications Biology

A male-derived volatile sex pheromone in Caenorhabditis nematodes identified through its mimicry by a predator

  • Matthew R. Gronquist1
  • Xuan Wan2
  • Daniel Leighton3
  • Yuki Togawa4
  • Marika Sagawa4
  • Paul W. Sternberg2
  • Frank C. Schroeder5
  • Ryoji Shinya4
5 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, State University of New York College at Fredonia
  2. 2Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology
  3. 3Department of Human Genetics, Department of Biological Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California
  4. 4School of Agriculture, Meiji University
  5. 5Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University
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Abstract

Recent studies demonstrated that the predacious fungi Arthrobotrys oligospora emits a mixture of volatile chemical cues that function to attract nematode prey. The strong attraction elicited by one of the mixture components, methyl 3-methyl-2-butenoate (MMB), was highly female- and hermaphrodite-specific within several Caenorhabditis species, including C. remanei and C. elegans, suggesting that MMB might function as a mimic of an endogenous, male-produced, volatile sex pheromone (VSP) within these species. Here, we report evidence that MMB is produced by C. remanei males at levels that are attractive to C. remanei females and C. elegans hermaphrodites. Notably, MMB production was not detected for C. elegans males; a finding which correlates with behavioral assays for which worm-conditioned media (WCM) prepared from C. remanei, but not from C. elegans adult males is strongly attractive to both C. remanei females and C. elegans hermaphrodites. Our findings establish MMB as the first chemically identified VSP in nematodes and show that A. oligospora exploits a dual strategy of chemical deception—mimicry and eavesdropping—to enhance prey capture.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{gronquist2026malederived,
  title = {{A male-derived volatile sex pheromone in Caenorhabditis nematodes identified through its mimicry by a predator}},
  author = {Matthew R. Gronquist and Xuan Wan and Daniel Leighton and Yuki Togawa and Marika Sagawa and Paul W. Sternberg and Frank C. Schroeder and Ryoji Shinya},
  journal = {Communications Biology},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.1038/s42003-026-10575-4},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10575-4},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - A male-derived volatile sex pheromone in Caenorhabditis nematodes identified through its mimicry by a predator
AU  - Matthew R. Gronquist
AU  - Xuan Wan
AU  - Daniel Leighton
AU  - Yuki Togawa
AU  - Marika Sagawa
AU  - Paul W. Sternberg
AU  - Frank C. Schroeder
AU  - Ryoji Shinya
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/01
JO  - Communications Biology
DO  - 10.1038/s42003-026-10575-4
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10575-4
AB  - Recent studies demonstrated that the predacious fungi Arthrobotrys oligospora emits a mixture of volatile chemical cues that function to attract nematode prey. The strong attraction elicited by one of the mixture components, methyl 3-methyl-2-butenoate (MMB), was highly female- and hermaphrodite-specific within several Caenorhabditis species, including C. remanei and C. elegans, suggesting that MMB might function as a mimic of an endogenous, male-produced, volatile sex pheromone (VSP) within these species. Here, we report evidence that MMB is produced by C. remanei males at levels that are attractive to C. remanei females and C. elegans hermaphrodites. Notably, MMB production was not detected for C. elegans males; a finding which correlates with behavioral assays for which worm-conditioned media (WCM) prepared from C. remanei, but not from C. elegans adult males is strongly attractive to both C. remanei females and C. elegans hermaphrodites. Our findings establish MMB as the first chemically identified VSP in nematodes and show that A. oligospora exploits a dual strategy of chemical deception—mimicry and eavesdropping—to enhance prey capture.
SN  - 2399-3642
ER  -