Peptide and protein pheromones in molluscs
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Updated: Aug 22, 2026

The Identification of Sea Lamprey Pheromones Using Bioassay-Guided Fractionation
Published on: July 17, 2018
Abraham J Susswein1, Gregg T Nagle
1Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel. avy@mail.biu.ac.il
Abstract:
Pheromones have been implicated in the control of a number of behaviors in molluscs, but few peptide pheromones have been characterized in these animals. Peptide pheromones include: (1) a family of water-borne peptide pheromonal attractants (attractins) in the gastropod Aplysia that are released during egg laying and attract other Aplysia to form egg-laying and mating aggregations; (2) a tetrapeptide (ILME) in the cephalopod Sepia that elutes from egg masses and is thought to be involved in the transport of oocytes in the genital tract during egg laying; and (3) a Sepia sperm-attracting peptide (SepSAP; PIDPGVamide) that is released from oocytes during egg laying to facilitate external fertilization.
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