Acceleration and delay of puberty in female mice via urinary chemosignals: age of the urine stimulus.

Five experiments were conducted to test the effects of the age of urine on the acceleration and delay of puberty in female mice resulting from treatment with urinary chemosignals. The chemosignal in the urine of male mice that accelerates female puberty was not affected by remaining exposed to the air at room conditions for up to 7 days, or when dried in air and reconstituted with water. The chemosignal in the urine of grouped female mice that delays puberty in females and the chemosignal present in the urine of pregnant and lactating female mice that accelerates female puberty were affected to varying degrees by exposure to room conditions; at 5-to-7 days of exposure the urine samples lost their capacity to delay or accelerate sexual maturation. These results are in agreement with earlier work indicating that the male chemosignal is not volatile, whereas the substances in urine from grouped females and pregnant or lactating females are more volatile. The results also have implications for interpretations of how the urinary chemosignals may affect the population biology of house mice under natural conditions.