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Updated: Aug 10, 2026
06:16
Electrophysiological Measurements from a Moth Olfactory System
Published on: March 29, 2011
How a sex pheromone might act at a concentration below 10(-16) M
The EMBO Journal
|March 1, 1993
Abstract:
The sex-inducing pheromone of Volvox carteri is a glycoprotein that triggers development of males and females at a concentration below 10(-16) M. Evidence is presented for the existence of a novel mechanism of signal amplification operating within the extracellular matrix of this multicellular organism. A family of 70 kDa matrix glycoproteins denoted pherophorins bear a C-terminal domain being homologous to the sex-inducing pheromone. Under the influence of the pheromone, this domain is liberated by highly specific proteolysis.
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