by Margaret Coulombe

Douglas Chandler has built a career investigating all the bits and pieces and nuance that promotes romance in the pond. Frogs are his subject of study. The ASU scientist has isolated a sexual chemoattractant in the eggs of female frogs. The substance is exactly what it sounds like, a chemical that helps female frogs attract their charming prince.

Appropriately, Chandler named the substance Allurin. He says that his find is the first such discovery in vertebrates. The chemical is 184 amino acids that say: Hey Daddy, come to Momma!

In frogs, these peptides act like designer perfumes. Males are lured to the right spot to meet Princess Froggy. If it’s good enough for frogs, what about humans?

To date, Chandler has cloned Allurin. He has also sequenced it genetically and found that it is structurally related to a number of mammalian sperm binding proteins.

“Intensive study of the relationships between these sperm attracting proteins and mammalian reproductive mechanisms may spawn new ways to enhance fertility or ensure contraception,” says Chandler, a professor in the School of Life Sciences (SOLS).

Not all that attracts necessarily involves biochemistry. Chandler knows this better than most. He is an artist as well as a scientist.

The potential of human analogues to Allurin could have enormous impact. But until that time comes, it seems that men and women will have to fall back on the more typical mechanisms of wooing: Chanel, an Arizona Diamondbacks game, coffee and dessert— or perhaps, an art opening?

This story is excerpted from a recent edition of the SOLS Newsletter. To read the full text, go to: http://sols.asu.edu/sols_news/27_news_06.php