Chemical communication: five major challenges in the post-genomic age

Chemical signals play an important role in the behaviour of most, if not all, organisms, but we still have much to learn about this mode of communication. Here I examine some of the major challenges to understanding chemical communication, especially for vertebrates, and consider how genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and other ‘-omics’ sciences and technologies provide new opportunities to address many of these challenges. First, one of the major challenges of this field is to better understand the kinds of information chemical signals provide. A second challenge is to unravel the proximate mechanisms that control chemical communication (i.e., the production and composition of chemosignals and olfactory recognition). Progress has been advancing rapidly in these areas, especially since the genes that encode odorant receptors were discovered, but there is still much to learn. Third, most research is focused on mechanisms, but there are major unsolved questions regarding the evolution of chemical communication. In particular, we still do not know how signals can evolve to become honest and reliable. A fourth major challenge is to better understand the role of chemical communication in the behaviour of our own species, and integrate this work into the social sciences. The final major challenge is to develop a field of applied chemical signalling that addresses problems in agriculture, medicine and the environment. In particular, we need to determine how chemical pollutants in our environment disrupt biological chemical signalling systems and potentially affect the health of humans and wildlife (ethotoxicology and ecotoxicology