State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beichen West Road 1-5, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.
School of Life Science and Technology, Nanyang Normal University, 1638 Wolong Road Nanyang, Henan, 473061, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 May 18;7(1):2094. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02259-1.
In this study, we examined how urine-borne volatile compounds (UVCs) and darcin of male mice are inherited from parents and interact to modulate the olfactory preferences of females using two inbred strains of mice, C57Bl/6 (C57) and BALB/c (BALB), and their reciprocal hybrids (BC = BALB♀× C57♂; CB = C57♀ × BALB♂). Chemical analysis revealed that the UVCs of C57BL/6 males were quantitatively distinguishable from those of BALB/c males. Darcin was detected in C57 urine, but not in BALB urine. The levels of UVCs and darcin in both BC and CB were intermediate between those of C57 and BALB. Behaviourally, C57 females consistently preferred BALB male urine over C57 or CB males despite that there are trace amounts of darcin in BALB urine. However, the preference for BALB urine disappeared in contact two-choice tests of BALB vs. BC pairs, and restored when recombinant darcin was added to BALB male urine. Our results suggested that both UVCs and darcin in male mice are quantitatively inherited and interact to affect the olfactory preferences of females.
在这项研究中,我们研究了雄性小鼠尿液中挥发性化合物(UVC)和 Darcin 如何从父母那里遗传,并通过两种近交系小鼠(C57Bl/6(C57)和 BALB/c(BALB)及其相互杂种(BC = BALB♀×C57♂;CB = C57♀×BALB♂)相互作用来调节雌性的嗅觉偏好。化学分析表明,C57BL/6 雄性的 UVC 与 BALB/c 雄性的 UVC 在数量上是可区分的。Darcin 存在于 C57 尿液中,但不存在于 BALB 尿液中。BC 和 CB 的 UVC 和 Darcin 水平介于 C57 和 BALB 之间。行为上,尽管 BALB 尿液中存在痕量的 Darcin,但 C57 雌性始终优先选择 BALB 雄性尿液而不是 C57 或 CB 雄性。然而,在 BALB 与 BC 对的接触二选一测试中,对 BALB 尿液的偏好消失,当将重组 Darcin 添加到 BALB 雄性尿液中时,这种偏好又恢复了。我们的结果表明,雄性小鼠的 UVC 和 Darcin 都是定量遗传的,并相互作用影响雌性的嗅觉偏好。