Liu Yingjuan, Zhang Jinhua, Liu Dingzhen, Zhang Jianxu
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Institute of Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Integr Zool. 2014 Jun;9(3):255-64. doi: 10.1111/1749-4877.12057.
Most studies support the viewpoint that the vomeronasal organ has a profound effect on conspecific odor recognition, scent marking and mating behavior in the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus). However, the role of the vomeronasal organ in social odor recognition, social interaction and fitness is not well understood. Therefore, we conducted a series of behavioral and physiological tests to examine the referred points in golden hamster. We found that male hamsters with vomeronasal organ lesion showed no preference between a predator odor (the anal gland secretion of the Siberian weasels (Mustela sibirica) and putative female pheromone components (myristic acid and palmitic acid), but were still able to discriminate between these 2 kinds of odors. In behavioral tests of anxiety, we found that vomeronasal organ removal causes female hamsters to spend much less time in center grids and to cross fewer center grids and males to make fewer crossings between light and dark boxes than sham-operated controls. This indicates that a chronic vomeronasal organ lesion induced anxious responses in females. In aggressive behavioral tests, we found that a chronic vomeronasal organ lesion decreased agonistic behavior in female hamsters but not in males. The pup growth and litter size show no differences between the 2 groups. All together, our data suggested that vomeronasal organ ablation disrupted the olfactory recognition of social chemosignals in males, and induced anxiety-like and aggressive behavior changes in females. However, a vomeronasal organ lesion did not affect the reproductive capacity and fitness of hamsters. Our studies may have important implications concerning the role of the vomeronasal organ in golden hamsters and also in rodents.
大多数研究支持这样的观点，即犁鼻器对金黄地鼠（Mesocricetus auratus）的同种气味识别、气味标记和交配行为有深远影响。然而，犁鼻器在社会气味识别、社会互动和适应性方面的作用尚未得到充分理解。因此，我们进行了一系列行为和生理测试，以研究金黄地鼠中的这些问题。我们发现，犁鼻器受损的雄性地鼠在捕食者气味（黄鼬（Mustela sibirica）的肛腺分泌物）和假定的雌性信息素成分（肉豆蔻酸和棕榈酸）之间没有偏好，但仍能够区分这两种气味。在焦虑行为测试中，我们发现，与假手术对照组相比，切除犁鼻器会使雌性地鼠在中央网格中停留的时间大大减少，穿过的中央网格数量减少，并且雄性地鼠在明暗箱之间的穿梭次数减少。这表明慢性犁鼻器损伤会在雌性中诱发焦虑反应。在攻击性行为测试中，我们发现慢性犁鼻器损伤会降低雌性地鼠的攻击行为，但对雄性地鼠没有影响。两组之间幼崽的生长和窝仔数没有差异。总之，我们的数据表明，犁鼻器切除破坏了雄性地鼠对社会化学信号的嗅觉识别，并在雌性中诱发了类似焦虑和攻击行为的变化。然而，犁鼻器损伤并未影响地鼠的繁殖能力和适应性。我们的研究可能对犁鼻器在金黄地鼠以及啮齿动物中的作用具有重要意义。
