CHEMICAL ECOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION
Many animals, including humans, communicate using chemical signals. Understanding the biological and chemical bases for these signals could lead to new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. And, knowledge of how animals communicate through chemical signals could help devise new ways to protect wildlife from environmental hazards and control agricultural pests and nonindigenous species, reducing conflicts between humans and wildlife.

Chemosensory cues are used to identify individuals, signify social rank, mark territories, and indicate reproductive and health status. In addition, chemical cues are often used to guide migration and regulate reproductive behavior. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Monell scientists are developing non-toxic repellants and attractants that will aid in minimizing crop and domestic animal damage by pest species.

Body odors, or odortypes, can be used to distinguish one individual from another. Researchers at the Center are working to identify and understand the presence of individual odortypes in mammals. These unique individual odors aid in mate selection, promote genetic diversity, and minimize inbreeding. Scientists have isolated the genes that encode odortypes and are investigating how the coding is accomplished. Studies are underway to explore the influence of odortypes on social interactions in animals and humans.

Additional research at Monell includes studies intended to:

  • Investigate how predator scents might be used to repel pest species
  • Use molecular modeling techniques to develop new non-lethal chemical repellents against wildlife pest species
  • Formulate attractants that can be used to deliver vaccines for diseases such as Lyme disease and rabies or sterilants to wildlife
  • Develop attractants and repellants for the brown tree snake, which has devastated bird populations on Guam and now threatens Hawaii
  • Identify pheromones involved in migration and reproduction in sea lampreys, which are a serious threat to other species in the Great Lakes
  • Determine the influence of odortypes on human social communication
  • Understand exactly how genes determine individual odortypes
  • Evaluate the role of human body odors on hormonal cyclicity in women
  • Determine the effects of viral infection on body odor and behavioral interactions in mice
  • Investigate the effects of aging on body odor of mice
  • Explore the vomeronasal organ and accessory olfactory system in human and animal models