Miyazaki Masao, Miyazaki Tamako, Nishimura Takashi, Hojo Wataru, Yamashita Tetsuro
Department of Biological Chemistry and Food Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, 3-18-8 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8550, Japan.
J Chem Ecol. 2018 Apr;44(4):364-373. doi: 10.1007/s10886-018-0951-3. Epub 2018 Apr 10.
Scents emitted from excretions provide important information about the owner. Volatile compounds with higher levels in a species and/or sex, or that vary among individuals could be odor cues for species and/or sex, or individual recognition. However, such compounds have been identified in only a few vertebrate species. In domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus), it is known that unburied cat feces are territorial markers asserting the border of their home range, but little was known which fecal compounds are scent cues for species, sex, and individual recognition in cats. In the present study, we demonstrated the chemical basis for species, sex, and individual recognition using feces of cats. For males, major contents were fatty acids and 3-mercapto-3-methyl-1-butanol (MMB), a derivative of the unusual amino acid, felinine. MMB emission levels from feces had sex-based differences (male > female) and dynamic temporal changes during aging. Cats distinguished fecal odors with and without MMB, and different fatty acid compositions among individuals. No cat-specific compound, such as MMB, was detectable from their anal odor emitting fatty acids. We concluded that fecal MMB is a male sex recognition pheromone in cats and also provides a temporal trace of the owner. After sensing MMB, they may distinguish individual differences of conspecific feces with variable subsets of fatty acids. In contrast to scent marks, since cats can obtain species information from visual cues before sniffing conspecific anal odors, they may use their efforts to distinguish individual differences of anal odors during sniffing.
排泄物散发的气味提供了有关其主人的重要信息。在一个物种和/或性别中含量较高，或在个体之间存在差异的挥发性化合物可能是用于物种和/或性别识别，或个体识别的气味线索。然而，仅在少数脊椎动物物种中鉴定出了此类化合物。在家猫（Felis silvestris catus）中，已知未掩埋的猫粪是划定其活动范围边界的领地标记，但对于哪些粪便化合物是猫用于物种、性别和个体识别的气味线索却知之甚少。在本研究中，我们利用猫的粪便证明了物种、性别和个体识别的化学基础。对于雄性猫，主要成分是脂肪酸和3-巯基-3-甲基-1-丁醇（MMB），它是一种特殊氨基酸猫尿氨酸的衍生物。粪便中MMB的散发水平存在基于性别的差异（雄性>雌性），并且在粪便老化过程中会发生动态变化。猫能够区分含有和不含MMB的粪便气味，以及个体之间不同的脂肪酸组成。在它们从肛门散发气味的脂肪酸中检测不到像MMB这样的猫特异性化合物。我们得出结论，粪便中的MMB是猫的一种雄性性别识别信息素，同时也提供了其主人的时间线索。在感知到MMB后，它们可能会通过不同的脂肪酸子集来区分同种粪便的个体差异。与气味标记不同，由于猫在嗅闻同种肛门气味之前可以从视觉线索中获取物种信息，所以它们可能会在嗅闻过程中努力区分肛门气味的个体差异。
