VIAGRA NEWS

Source: The Age

Date: 16-Aug-2007

It's a potent cocktail of sex-attracting chemicals that's being likened to a cross between Chanel No 5 and Viagra.

The trouble is, it only works if you are a sea slug.

But knowing what turns on these inedible and unsexy sea creatures could one day give the seafood industry a major boost, says marine biotechnologist Scott Cummins, of the University of Queensland.

He said the chemical cocktail of four different proteins contains powerful sex attractants called pheromones which are irresistible to other sea slugs.

"We describe it as a mix between Chanel No 5 and Viagra because it induces the attraction between these animals and also induces mating," Dr Cummins said.

"It's also different because most of the pheromones that we know of come from insects, whereas the marine environment has been largely neglected, so this is one of the first discoveries of a marine sex attraction pheromone."

Sea slugs are nearly blind and usually roam the oceans alone.

But when pheromones are about, they come together every summer for what is effectively group sex.

"They only live for a year and they come together for these breeding parties which can last for days," he said.

"After that they die but they have a big breeding party beforehand, so they go off with a bang."

But Dr Cummins said the gatherings had nothing to do with opposites attracting, as sea slugs were simultaneous hermaphrodites, actively donating and receiving sperm at the same time.

The research work on sea slugs could unlock the mating secrets of other more palatable animals, he said.

"The sea slugs have been a very good modelling animal but we are also finding the pheromone system is also in other commercially-related species, like the abalone and the squid," Dr Cummins said.

"So this may have important applications in aquaculture and Australia has a lucrative aquaculture industry."

The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.