Publications
Citation
Gillard J, Frenkel J, Devos V, Sabbe K, Paul C, Rempt M, Inzé D, Pohnert G, Vuylsteke M, Vyverman W
Metabolomics Enables the Structure Elucidation of a Diatom Sex Pheromone.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English). 2013 Jan 14; 52: 854-7.
Abstract
Finding a mate: Diatoms use chemical signals to sense the presence of and find their mating partners. When the metabolic profiles of sexually active and inactive cells were compared, a highly up-regulated metabolite generated in the attracting mating type was identified as di-L-prolyl diketopiperazine, the first diatom pheromone.