Root-Gutteridge Holly, de Kock Neil, Young Madeleine, Gill Andrew C, Penny Jake A, Pike Thomas W, Mills Daniel S
School of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.
Chem Senses. 2025 Jan 22;50. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjaf019.
Many animals transmit information in the form of chemical signals to modify behavior or induce physiological change in receivers. For some taxa, such as species in the order Carnivora, chemical signals are known to provide a critical mode of communication, although they are still poorly understood compared to other signal modalities. Here, we review the literature to identify and categorize potential chemical signals within the Carnivora with a view to determining commonalities based on sex, taxon, and function. Data were drawn from 112 publications, dating from 1896 to 2021. Of the 1,532 discrete chemicals identified, 169 were detected in > 5 species, with 58 found in ≥ 10 species. However, multiple different names were often used to report the same compound, reducing the transparency of the literature. Two hundred and fifty-two chemicals were identified as biomarkers, i.e. associated with specific behavioral contexts (dominance hierarchy, appeasement, agonistic, etc.) or specific demographic traits (age, sex, etc.). Few studies established a causal link between these biomarkers and behavioral or physiological changes, so only a few could be definitively described as behaviorally functional bioactive signals. We found high variability concerning which species, chemicals, and sources were represented in the literature, which could potentially lead to a perceptual bias in the relative importance of certain chemicals. Finally, we propose a method for standardized reporting of chemical signals and suggest that future work should focus on a more consistent expansion of the range of species, products, and chemical types analyzed so that the phylogenetic relationship of chemical signals across taxa can be determined.
许多动物以化学信号的形式传递信息，以改变行为或引起接收者的生理变化。对于某些分类群，如食肉目动物，化学信号是一种重要的通讯方式，尽管与其他信号方式相比，人们对其了解仍然很少。在这里，我们回顾文献，以识别和分类食肉目动物体内潜在的化学信号，目的是根据性别、分类群和功能确定其共性。数据来自1896年至2021年的112篇出版物。在鉴定出的1532种离散化学物质中，169种在超过5个物种中被检测到，58种在至少10个物种中被发现。然而，同一化合物常常有多个不同的名称，这降低了文献的透明度。252种化学物质被鉴定为生物标志物，即与特定行为背景（优势等级、安抚、争斗等）或特定人口统计学特征（年龄、性别等）相关。很少有研究在这些生物标志物与行为或生理变化之间建立因果联系，因此只有少数可以被明确描述为具有行为功能的生物活性信号。我们发现文献中所涉及的物种、化学物质和来源存在很大差异，这可能会导致对某些化学物质相对重要性的认知偏差。最后，我们提出了一种化学信号标准化报告的方法，并建议未来的工作应集中在更一致地扩大所分析的物种、产物和化学类型的范围，以便能够确定不同分类群化学信号的系统发育关系。
