@article {Becher206375, author = {Paul G. Becher and Sebastien Lebreton and Erika A. Wallin and Erik Hedenstr{\"o}m and Felipe Borrero and Marie Bengtsson and Volker J{\"o}rger and Peter Witzgall}, title = {The scent of the fly}, elocation-id = {206375}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1101/206375}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {(Z)-4-undecenal (Z4-11Al) is the volatile pheromone produced by females of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster. Female flies emit Z4-11Al at few nanograms per hour, for species-specific communication and mate-finding. Tests with synthetic Z4-11Al show that it has a characteristic off-flavour, which we perceive even at the small amounts produced by one female fly. Since only females produce Z4-11Al, and not males, we can reliably distinguish between single D. melanogaster males and females, according to their scent. A wine-tasting panel finds that we sense as little as 1 ng synthetic Z4-11Al in a glass of wine, and 10 ng Z4-11Al is perceived as a loud off-flavour. This corroborates the observation that a glass of wine is spoilt by a single D. melanogaster fly falling into it, which we here show is caused by Z4-11Al. The biological role of Z4-11Al or structurally related aldehydes in humans and the basis for this semiochemical convergence remains yet unclear.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/20/206375}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/20/206375.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }