Southern pine beetle: Olfactory receptor and behavior discrimination of enantiomers of the attractant pheromone frontalin.

In laboratory and field bioassays, the response ofDendroctonus frontalis was significantly greater to the mixture of (1S, 5R)-(-)-frontalin andalpha-pinene than to (1R,5S)-(+)-frontalin andalpfa-pinene. Electro-physiological studies revealed that antennal olfactory receptor cells were significantly more responsive to (1S, 5R)-(-)-frontalin than to (1R, 5S)-(+)-frontalin. Both enantiomers stimulated the same olfactory cells which suggests that each cell possesses at least two types of enantiomer-specific acceptors.