Chemistry Between Salamanders: Evolution of the SPF Courtship Pheromone System in Salamandridae Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Chemical communication is an important aspect of courtship and reproduction in salamanders (Urodela), where males secrete several protein pheromones from various sexually dimorphic glands. The most widely used sex pheromone system consists of proteins of the Sodefrin Precursor-like Factor (SPF) family. This protein family already started diversifying through gene duplications in the Late Palaeozoic and continued to do so in various urodelan ...