据1月30日的《科学》杂志报道说，英国牛津与剑桥的研究人员已经将沙漠蝗虫的彻底转变（即从无害、独处的昆虫转变为群居型、集结成群的昆虫）与脑中的常见化学物质5-羟色胺联系在了一起。这一发现阐明了这些沙漠蝗虫体内的从互相嫌避到彼此吸引的一种机制，而且可能会开启控制这种对经济具有毁灭性打击的害虫的新方法之门。

Michael Anstey及其同僚对沙漠蝗虫体内的5-羟色胺水平进行了检测，与此同时，他们对处于独处状态和群居状态的蝗虫进行了相关的刺激。他们的结果显示，那些处于最为集结状态（即处于集结相的）的蝗虫比那些处于平静独处状态的蝗虫，其体内的5-羟色胺水平要高出近3倍多。

这一发现披露了将个体蝗虫间的相互作用与蝗虫群体结构发生大规模变化并开始出现大规模迁徙联系在一起的一种神经化学机制。人们已知这些沙漠蝗虫在有的时候会形成数十亿之众的蝗群，它们常常会对农作物的收成带来毁灭性的打击。

Paul Anthony Stevenson在一篇Perspective中写道，尽管这一发现不会为人们提供一种即刻的害虫控制方法，但如果科学家们能够发现可行的化学方法将这些集结的蝗虫重新转化成为它们单独存在的状态的话，那么这些新的发现就会在对付这些害虫上发挥“相当大的潜力”。

推荐原始出处：

Science 30 January 2009:DOI: 10.1126/science.1165939

Serotonin Mediates Behavioral Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts

Michael L. Anstey,1* Stephen M. Rogers,1,2* Swidbert R. Ott,2 Malcolm Burrows,2 Stephen J. Simpson1,3

Desert locusts, Schistocerca gregaria, show extreme phenotypic plasticity, transforming between a little-seen solitarious phase and the notorious swarming gregarious phase depending on population density. An essential tipping point in the process of swarm formation is the initial switch from strong mutual aversion in solitarious locusts to coherent group formation and greater activity in gregarious locusts. We show here that serotonin, an evolutionarily conserved mediator of neuronal plasticity, is responsible for this behavioral transformation, being both necessary if behavioral gregarization is to occur and sufficient to induce it. Our data demonstrate a neuRochemical mechanism linking interactions between individuals to large-scale changes in population structure and the onset of mass migration.

1 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.
2 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK.
3 School of Biological Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.