Miyazaki Tamako, Nishimura Takashi, Yamashita Tetsuro, Miyazaki Masao
Department of Biological Chemistry and Food Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, 3-18-8 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate 020-8550 Japan.
J Ethol. 2018;36(1):99-105. doi: 10.1007/s10164-017-0532-x. Epub 2017 Nov 16.
Scent emitted from anal sac secretions provides important signals for most Carnivora. Their secretions emit a variety of volatile compounds, some of which function as chemical signals with information about the scent owners. The domestic cat has a pair of anal sac glands to secrete a pungent liquid. Their anal sac secretions may give information about sex, reproductive state, and recognition of individuals. However, little is known about the volatile compounds emitted from anal sac secretions and their biological functions in cats. In this study, we examined the volatile chemical profiles of anal sac secretions in cats and their olfactory ability to discriminate intraspecific anal sac secretions. Analysis with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that the major volatile compounds were short-chain free fatty acids, whose contents varied among individuals, as well as other carnivores. There was no sex difference in the volatile profiles. In temporal analyses of individual anal sac secretions performed 2 months apart, the profiles were highly conserved within individuals. Habituation-dishabituation tests showed that cats can distinguish individual differences in the odor of anal sac secretions. These results suggest that cats utilize short-chain free fatty acids emitted from anal sac secretions to obtain scent information for individual recognition rather than species or sex recognition.
肛门囊分泌物散发的气味为大多数食肉动物提供重要信号。它们的分泌物会释放出多种挥发性化合物，其中一些作为化学信号传递有关气味所有者的信息。家猫有一对肛门囊腺体来分泌一种刺鼻的液体。它们的肛门囊分泌物可能会提供有关性别、生殖状态和个体识别的信息。然而，关于猫肛门囊分泌物释放的挥发性化合物及其生物学功能，人们知之甚少。在本研究中，我们检测了猫肛门囊分泌物的挥发性化学特征以及它们辨别同种肛门囊分泌物的嗅觉能力。气相色谱 - 质谱分析表明，主要的挥发性化合物是短链游离脂肪酸，其含量在个体之间以及与其他食肉动物之间有所不同。挥发性特征不存在性别差异。在相隔两个月对个体肛门囊分泌物进行的时间分析中，这些特征在个体内部高度保守。习惯化 - 去习惯化测试表明，猫能够区分肛门囊分泌物气味的个体差异。这些结果表明，猫利用肛门囊分泌物释放的短链游离脂肪酸来获取用于个体识别的气味信息，而非物种或性别识别。
