title: Analysis of male pheromones that accelerate female reproductive organ development.
abstract: Male odors can influence a female's reproductive physiology. In the mouse, the odor of male urine results in an early onset of female puberty. Several volatile and protein pheromones have previously been reported to each account for this bioactivity. Here we bioassay inbred BALB/cJ females to study pheromone-accelerated uterine growth, a developmental hallmark of puberty. We evaluate the response of wild-type and mutant mice lacking a specialized sensory transduction channel, TrpC2, and find TrpC2 function to be necessary for pheromone-mediated uterine growth. We analyze the relative effectiveness of pheromones previously identified to accelerate puberty through direct bioassay and find none to significantly accelerate uterine growth in BALB/cJ females. Complementary to this analysis, we have devised a strategy of partial purification of the uterine growth bioactivity from male urine and applied it to purify bioactivity from three different laboratory strains. The biochemical characteristics of the active fraction of all three strains are inconsistent with that of previously known pheromones. When directly analyzed, we are unable to detect previously known pheromones in urine fractions that generate uterine growth. Our analysis indicates that pheromones emitted by males to advance female puberty remain to be identified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kelly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Flanagan
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stowers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D005260:Female; D007178:Inbreeding; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009154:Mutation; D009929:Organ Size / Q000187:drug effects; D010675:Pheromones / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000652:urine; D011627:Puberty / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D050052:TRPC Cation Channels / Q000235:genetics; D013997:Time Factors; D014599:Uterus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development*; D019147:Vomeronasal Organ / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones; D050052:TRPC Cation Channels; C491858:Trpc2 protein, mouse