Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on July 5, 2008
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjn035
Mice Recognize Recent Urine Scent Marks by the Molecular Composition
Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Correspondence to be sent to: A. Cavaggioni, Dipartimento di Anatomia e Fisiologia Umana, Università di Padova, Via Marzolo 3, 35100 Padova, Italia. e-mail: andrea.cavaggioni{at}unipd.it
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Abstract |
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Male mice mark the territory with urine scent marks that are frequently renewed to maintain the territory ownership. We measured the response of male mice to small spots of urine deposed either 0, 5, 11, 22, 45, 90 min, or 24 h before testing and show that mice loose interest in sniffing scent marks as they become older and older. We asked what scent features tell a mouse how recent a scent mark is, and therefore, we studied the molecule-to-behavior relationship by correlating 6 behavioral variables—the number of sniffing acts, the latency to the first sniff, the number of urine marks, the latency to the first mark, the area of the marks, and the number of fecal pellets—to 2,4-dehydro-exo-brevicomin, linalool, 2-sec-butyl-4,5-dihydrothiazole, 2,4-dimethylphenol, 4-ethylphenol, and 6,10-dimethyl-5,9-undecadien-2-one released from urine spots over the time, identified, and quantified by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Canonical correlation between the molecular and the behavioral principal components was strong (R(1)= 0.96, P = 0.026). The principal component based on 2,4-dehydro-exo-brevicomin, linalool, and 2-sec-butyl-4,5-dihydrothiazole correlated negatively with countermarking and positively with the sniffing behavior, suggesting a semantic feature of fresh male mouse urine.
Key words: behavior, mouse, olfaction, scent, time
Accepted 5 June 2008