1. Non-destructive real-time detection of the alarm pheromone of Polyrhachis vicina Roger (Hymenoptera: Formicinae) by silver ion-assisted electrospray mass spectrometry.
- Author
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Cai, Tian, Wang, Dan, Wu, Xiaolin, Xie, Kexin, Jiang, Yan, Fang, Dongmei, Chen, Xiaozhen, and Wu, Zhijun
- Subjects
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PHEROMONES , *POLYRHACHIS , *METHANOL , *ALDEHYDES , *FUNCTIONAL groups , *SILVER ions ,ANT anatomy - Abstract
Graphical abstract Highlights • The alarm pheromone of ant was detected using ESI-MS. • This is a non-destructive and real-time method. • Silver ions improve the detection sensitivity of pheromone. • The heated dry gas is used to disturb the ants instead of an extra heating system. Abstract We reported a practical non-destructive method for real-time detection of the ant alarm pheromone by silver ion-assisted ESI-MS. Polyrhachis vicina Roger workers were placed directly in the ESI source. The heated dry gas was used to make the ants feel threatened and release their alarm pheromone. When methanol was introduced to the ESI source, no peaks were detected. New peaks at m/z 221.0100, 223.0094, 239.0197, and 241.0195 were observed when a methanol solution of AgNO 3 was used instead of pure methanol. Accurate masses, silver isotopes, and collision-induced dissociation experiments indicated that the four peaks corresponded to an unknown compound with the molecular formula C 7 H 14 O. The fragmentation and reactions of the functional groups of reference compounds suggested that the unknown pheromone is not an ether, aldehyde, or alcohol. The pheromone was identified as 4-methyl-2-hexanone by comparing the relative abundance of product ions with those of reference ketones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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