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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on February 26, 2007
Chemical Senses 2007 32(4):355-360; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm005
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Firing Properties of Accessory Olfactory Bulb Mitral/Tufted Cells in Response to Urine Delivered to the Vomeronasal Organ of Gray Short-Tailed Opossums

Jing-Ji Zhang, Guang-Zhe Huang and Mimi Halpern

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Jing-Ji Zhang, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. e-mail: jingji.zhang{at}downstate.edu


  Abstract

In comparison with many mammals, there is limited knowledge of the role of pheromones in conspecific communication in the gray short-tailed opossum. Here we report that mitral/tufted (M/T) cells of the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) of male opossums responded to female urine but not to male urine with two distinct patterns: excitation followed by inhibition or inhibition. Either pattern could be mimicked by application of guanosine 5'-O-3-thiotriphosphate and blocked by guanosine 5'-O-2-thiodiphosphate, indicating that the response of neurons in this pathway is through a G-protein–coupled receptor mechanism. In addition, the inhibitor of phospholipase C (PLC), U73122 [GenBank] , significantly blocked urine-induced responses. Male and female urine were ineffective as stimuli for M/T cells in the AOB of female opossums. These results indicate that urine of diestrous females contains a pheromone that directly stimulates vomeronasal neurons through activation of PLC by G-protein–coupled receptor mechanisms and that the response to urine is sexually dimorphic.

Key words: accessory olfactory bulb, opossum, urine, vomeronasal organ

Accepted 30 January 2007


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