In most mammals, conspecific chemosensory communication relies on semiochemical release within complex bodily secretions and subsequent stimulus detection by the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Urine, a rich source of ethologically relevant chemosignals, conveys detailed information about sex, social hierarchy, health, and reproductive state, which becomes accessible to a conspecific via vomeronasal sampling. So far, however, numerous aspects of social chemosignaling along the vomeronasal pathway remain unclear. Moreover, since virtually all research on vomeronasal physiology is based on secretions derived from inbred laboratory mice, it remains uncertain whether such stimuli provide a true representation of potentially more relevant cues found in the wild. Here, we combine a robust low-noise VNO activity assay with comparative molecular profiling of sex- and strain-specific mouse urine samples from two inbred laboratory strains as well as from wild mice. With comprehensive molecular portraits of these secretions, VNO activity analysis now enables us to (i) assess whether and, if so, how much sex/strain-selective 'raw' chemical information in urine is accessible via vomeronasal sampling; (ii) identify which chemicals exhibit sufficient discriminatory power to signal an animal's sex, strain, or both; (iii) determine the extent to which wild mouse secretions are unique; and (iv) analyze whether vomeronasal response profiles differ between strains. We report both sex- and, in particular, strain-selective VNO representations of chemical information. Within the urinary 'secretome', both volatile compounds and proteins exhibit sufficient discriminative power to provide sex- and strain-specific molecular fingerprints. While total protein amount is substantially enriched in male urine, females secrete a larger variety at overall comparatively low concentrations. Surprisingly, the molecular spectrum of wild mouse urine does not dramatically exceed that of inbred strains. Finally, vomeronasal response profiles differ between C57BL/6 and BALB/c animals, with particularly disparate representations of female semiochemicals.

BIOCEV group Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Chemosensation Institute for Biology 2 RWTH Aachen University Aachen Germany

Department of Medical Neurobiology Institute for Medical Research Israel Canada Faculty of Medicine The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem Israel

Institute of Neurophysiology Uniklinik RWTH Aachen University Aachen Germany

Research Training Group 2416 MultiSenses MultiScales RWTH Aachen University Aachen Germany

Před aktualizací

doi: 10.1101/2023.06.24.546367 PubMed

Před aktualizací

doi: 10.7554/eLife.90529.1 PubMed

Před aktualizací

doi: 10.7554/eLife.90529.2 PubMed

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