title: Olfactory sensitivity for "green odors" (aliphatic C(6) alcohols and C(6) aldehydes)--a comparative study in male CD-1 mice (Mus musculus) and female spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi).
abstract: Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of six male CD-1 mice for "green odors", a group of eight structurally related aliphatic C(6) alcohols and aldehydes known to exert anxiolytic and stress-reducing effects, was investigated. With all eight stimuli, the animals discriminated concentrations ≤0.03 ppm (parts per million) from the solvent, and with three of the eight stimuli the best-scoring animals were even able to detect concentrations ≤0.03 ppb (parts per billion). Three female spider monkeys tested in parallel were found to detect the same eight stimuli at concentrations <1 ppm, and with six of the eight stimuli the best-scoring animals detected concentrations ≤0.1 ppm. Analysis of odor structure-activity relationships showed that in both species the type of functional group attached to the aliphatic C(6) backbone of the odorant molecules systematically affected their olfactory sensitivity whereas the presence/absence of a double bond did not. In the mice, but not in the spider monkeys, the position of a double bond and the cis/trans-configuration of the odorant molecules also had a systematic effect on detectability of the "green odors". A comparison of the detection thresholds between the two species tested here and those obtained in human subjects suggests that the number of functional olfactory receptor genes is a poor predictor of a species' olfactory sensitivity for "green odors".
authors.affiliation: IFM Biology, Section of Zoology, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Pia Katrine
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Løtvedt
authors.forename: Sathish Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Murali
authors.forename: Laura Teresa
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Hernandez Salazar
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laska
mesh_terms: D000447:Aldehydes / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D053819:Atelinae / Q000502:physiology*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005233:Fatty Alcohols / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009812:Odorants; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000447:Aldehydes; D005233:Fatty Alcohols