Animals and plants use chemical signals to obtain information about their environment and to communicate with each other. We investigate how chemical communication works, using mainly insects as models. Our group has been awarded a Linnaeus grant for the ICE3-initiative.
Our three main areas of research concern:
-
Sexual communication with pheromones,
-
plant-insect interactions
-
neuroethology of odour communication.
We develop pheromones and other semiochemicals for insect control in agriculture, horticulture and forestry and for insects that transmit diseases. A changing climate with higher summer temperatures and altered rainfall patterns makes insect control an increasingly urgent challenge.
In addition to application-oriented work, our research concerns even sensory physiology, evolutionary processes underlying odour communication systems, molecular mechanisms of odour perception, and behavioural modulation by learning and multisensorial stimuli.