News Finding: Compared to wild moths, domesticated silkmoths seem to have less ability to smell environmental odours with their antennae and to locate host plants due to several millennia in captivity.
Paper Finding: Hence, changes in the neural coding of environmental odorants in domesticated silkmoth females could occur because they had no impact on the survival of offspring.
News Context: These patterns were highly variable among individuals of domesticated silkmoths but were largely constant in their wild ancestor group as well as in four other insect species. Compared to wild moths, domesticated silkmoths seem to have less ability to smell environmental odours with their antennae and to locate host plants due to several millennia in captivity. On the other side, perception of the female-produced attractant bombykol in Bombyx mori males is unabated, although it is not necessary anymore to find the females, as they are presented to the males by the breeders.
Paper Context: In B. mori females, however, the olfactory code was much more variable from individual to individual than in the five other insect species investigated and was thus less reliable. Hence, changes in the neural coding of environmental odorants in domesticated silkmoth females could occur because they had no impact on the survival of offspring. Thus, the amplitude of antennal responses (linked to the W chromosome) and the representation of odours in the brain (not linked to the W chromosome) seem to be controlled by genes located on different chromosomes.