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Chemical Senses 2004 29(9):749-754; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjh076
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Chemical Senses Vol. 29 No. 9 © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved

Sex-specific Responses to Urinary Chemicals by the Mouse Vomeronasal Organ

Roger N. Thompson1,2, B.K. Robertson1, Audrey Napier1 and Kennedy S. Wekesa1

1 Alabama State University, Department of Biological Sciences, Montgomery, AL 36101-0271, USA 2 Current address: Department of Biological Science Program in Neuroscience and Molecular Biophysics, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Kennedy Wekesa, Department of Biological Sciences, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36101-0271. e-mail: kwekesa{at}asunet.alasu.edu

Social behaviors of most mammals are affected by chemical signals, pheromones, exchanged between conspecifics. Previous experiments have shown that behavioral responses to the same pheromone differ depending on the sex and endocrine status of the respondent. Although the exact mechanism of this dimorphism is not known, one possible contributor may be due to sexually dimorphic receptors or due to differences in central processing within the brain. In order to investigate the differences in response between male and female mice to the same pheromonal stimulus two urinary compounds (2-heptanone and 2,5-dimethylpyrazine) were used to stimulate the production of Inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate (IP3) in microvillar membrane preparations of the vomeronasal organ as an indirect measurement of pheromonal stimulation. Incubation of such membranes from prepubertal mice with urine from the same sex or opposite sex, results in an increase in production of IP3. This stimulation is mimicked by GTP{gamma}S and blocked by GDPßS. Furthermore we found that 2-heptanone present in both male and female urine was capable of stimulating increased production of IP3 in the female VNO but not the male VNO. Finally, 2,5-dimethylpyrazine present only in female urine was also only capable of stimulating increased production of IP3 in the female VNO.

Key words: IP3, mice, pheromones, signal transduction, urinary compounds, VNO


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R. N. Thompson, A. Napier, and K. S. Wekesa
Attenuation of the Production of Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate in the Mouse Vomeronasal Organ by Antibodies Against the {alpha}q/11 Subfamily of G-Proteins
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