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: Taken together, our results suggest that domesticated silkmoths have a reduced sensitivity towards environmental odorants, possibly as a result of the absence of selection pressures during domestication.
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: A comparable decrease in the number of long trichoids is described for oriental fruit moth males after rearing the moths in the laboratory for only 20 years , indicating that in B. mori the loss of these sensilla might have also happened early in the course of domestication. Taken together, our results suggest that domesticated silkmoths have a reduced sensitivity towards environmental odorants, possibly as a result of the absence of selection pressures during domestication. A significant contribution of the Z chromosome to the observed domestication effect in females, however, seems unlikely because mother-mori hybrid females exhibited a 'domesticated' odour response profile even though they possess a 'wild' Z chromosome.