IFM Biology, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden.
Instituto de Neuro-Etologia, Universidad Veracruzana, C.P. 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2018 Oct;204(9-10):821-833. doi: 10.1007/s00359-018-1285-x. Epub 2018 Sep 10.
Using operant conditioning procedures, we assessed the olfactory sensitivity of six CD-1 mice and three spider monkeys for mold-associated odorants. We found that with all eight stimuli, the mice detected concentrations as low as 0.1 ppm (parts per million), and with two of them individual animals even detected concentrations as low as 1 ppt (parts per trillion). The spider monkeys detected concentrations as low as 4 ppm with all eight stimuli, and with four of them individual animals even detected concentrations as low as 4 ppb (parts per billion). Between-species comparisons showed that with all eight odorants, the mice displayed significantly lower threshold values, that is, a higher sensitivity than the spider monkeys, but not than human subjects tested in previous studies. Analysis of odor structure-activity relationships showed that in both species, the type of oxygen-containing functional group and the presence versus absence of a double bond as well as the length of the carbon backbone of the odor stimuli had a systematic effect on detectability. We conclude that both mice and spider monkeys are clearly able to detect the presence of molds and thus to assess the palatability of potential food using the volatiles produced by molds during putrefaction.
我们使用操作性条件反射程序，评估了六只 CD-1 小鼠和三只蜘蛛猴对与霉菌相关的气味的嗅觉敏感性。我们发现，对于所有八种刺激物，老鼠可以检测到低至 0.1ppm（百万分之一）的浓度，而其中两只个体动物甚至可以检测到低至 1ppt（万亿分之一）的浓度。对于所有八种刺激物，蜘蛛猴可以检测到低至 4ppm 的浓度，而其中四只个体动物甚至可以检测到低至 4ppb（十亿分之一）的浓度。种间比较表明，对于所有八种气味，老鼠显示出明显更低的阈值值，即比蜘蛛猴更高的敏感性，但不如以前研究中测试的人类受试者高。气味结构-活性关系的分析表明，在这两个物种中，含氧官能团的类型、双键的存在与否以及气味刺激物的碳骨架长度对可检测性都有系统的影响。我们得出结论，老鼠和蜘蛛猴显然都能够检测到霉菌的存在，从而可以使用霉菌在腐败过程中产生的挥发性物质来评估潜在食物的可接受性。
