Hormones and pheromones; a common ancestor?

Geest, A.M (2015) Hormones and pheromones; a common ancestor? Bachelor's Thesis, Biology.

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Abstract

Hormones and pheromones are comparable chemicals; they both cause physiological and behavioral changes by communicating information between different systems. In hormones, this communication occurs between the organs and cells of one individual. In pheromones this occurs between individuals, outside the body. Because of the different level of communication, the evolution is expected to be enormous between the two. There is an enormous diversity in pheromones, whilst a limited variation in hormones. There are millions of pheromones, each matching with a couple organisms. There are hundred hormones, each matching with millions of species. Hormones are more conserved between animals. In this study the hypothesis that hormones and pheromone evolved from the same purpose, when life was mostly unicellular, but while evolving the mechanisms of pheromone action and diversity became more complicated than that of hormones. We needed a more specific system to prevent crosstalk between sexes and species, and to avoid predators. Evolutionary pressure such as signaling honesty, stemming from the need to communicate between individuals became important and probably put vastly different evolutionary pressure on pheromones than hormones. Finally, the recent findings that cells within the same body have different competitive interests might put similar, even though less dramatic, evolutionary pressure on the evolution of hormones, will be discussed. Nowadays we use our knowledge about pheromones and hormones for medical and industrial problems, when the pheromones and hormones will evolve faster and faster we have to increase our knowledge around the evolution of hormones and pheromones.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Degree programme:	Biology
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2018 08:09
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2018 08:09
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/13533

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