9357245 Mason This NSF Young Investigator award investigates the interrelationships among natural products chemistry, behavioral biology, reproductive physiology, and ecology. This research uses a comparative, interdisciplinary approach that combines and integrates the molecular, organismal, and ecological levels of analysis. It is conducted both in the laboratory and in the field to illustrate the adaptive functions of semiochemicals or pheromones. Field and laboratory studies are complementary, bridging the gap between natural products chemistry and behavioral ecology by incorporating laboratory-based analyses of the structure, manufacture, and delivery of semiochemicals with studies of the animals's physiological ecology and behavior in the field. Specifically, the research focuses on vertebrate sex pheromones. Using state-of-the-art chemical techniques such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the principal investigator has isolated, identified, and synthesized the first pheromone in a reptile, the Canadian red- sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis. These studies address the practical applications of this research. Currently rattlesnake repellent based on semiochemicals produced by other snakes is being developed. A second project is aimed at using pheromones to help control populations of the Guam brown tree snake, an introduced pest species that has destroyed most of the native bird populations on Guam and threatens the ecology of other Pacific Ocean islands, including Hawaii. ***
