IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v412y2001i6843d10.1038_35084137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Odorants may arouse instinctive behaviours

Author

Listed:
  • Mehran Sam

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School)

  • Sadhna Vora

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School)

  • Bettina Malnic

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School)

  • Weidong Ma

    (Institute for Pheromone Research, Indiana University)

  • Milos V. Novotny

    (Institute for Pheromone Research, Indiana University)

  • Linda B. Buck

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School)

Abstract

The prevailing view of the mammalian olfactory system is that odorants are detected only in the nasal olfactory epithelium, whereas pheromones are generally detected in the vomeronasal organ1,2,3. Here we show that vomeronasal neurons can actually detect both odorants and pheromones. This suggests that in mammals, as in insects4,5,6, odorous compounds released from plants or other animal species may act as 'semiochemicals' — signalling molecules that elicit stereotyped behaviours that are advantageous to the emitter or to the receiver.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehran Sam & Sadhna Vora & Bettina Malnic & Weidong Ma & Milos V. Novotny & Linda B. Buck, 2001. "Odorants may arouse instinctive behaviours," Nature, Nature, vol. 412(6843), pages 142-142, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6843:d:10.1038_35084137
    DOI: 10.1038/35084137
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35084137
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35084137?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6843:d:10.1038_35084137. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.