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Further Possible Experiments

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Abstract

This final chapter suggests some additional ideas for more exercises that instructors can flesh out and develop into different directions. The cited references are meant to be mere starting points to the literature.

Under a microscope, expose male nematodes to a drop of vanillic acid. Vanillic acid is the sex pheromone of females. The particular species studied was the soybean cyst nematode, Heterodera glycines. The male nematode should respond by moving to the odor source, then coiling (Chasnov et al. 2007, Jonz et al. 2001; Meyer and Huettel 1996). You can test concentration effects; compare responses to homologs and analogs; and test for specificity by using pheromones of other nematode species. This experiment is more suited for campuses where nematode research is already going on and animals and pheromones are more readily available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York-Syracuse, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Dietland Müller-Schwarze

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Müller-Schwarze, D. (2009). Further Possible Experiments. In: Hands-On Chemical Ecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0378-5_25

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