Chemical ecology in retrospect and prospect

Chemical ecology deals with molecularly mediated biological interactions. Its scope includes the production and chemical characterization of signal molecules, their emission and transmission mechanisms, their detection in recipient organisms, the transduction of these signals, and the neuroendocrine-mediated behavioral or developmental responses they evoke. Inevitably, given the breadth of its mandate, the discipline is the direct beneficiary of advances in analytical and synthetic chemistry, protein chemistry, genetics, neurobiology, ecology, and evolution and, in fact, in virtually every field of the chemical and biological sciences. Because all living organisms emit, detect, and respond to chemical cues, the number and kinds of interactions are essentially limitless. Nonetheless, it is these interactions that underlie and generate the biotic environment in which we live. Certainly, chemical ecology is one of the most fertile research fields of contemporary science. Because of the extremely broad scope of this field, we found it particularly challenging to decide which topics to include in our Chemical Ecology Special Feature. We obviously had to pick and choose, and our choices may have been somewhat arbitrary. The final result should be seen as a collage of “snapshots from the frontier,” and we acknowledge that many other topics might have been chosen. The Special Feature contains 11 articles on a wide variety of subjects, each of which we believe tells an interesting story and illuminates an … ‡To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: te14{at}cornell.edu