IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v434y2005i7032d10.1038_nature03414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Encoding social signals in the mouse main olfactory bulb

Author

Listed:
  • Da Yu Lin

    (Duke University Medical Center)

  • Shao-Zhong Zhang

    (State University of New York)

  • Eric Block

    (State University of New York)

  • Lawrence C. Katz

    (Duke University Medical Center)

Abstract

Mammalian urine releases complex mixtures of volatile compounds that are used in reproduction, territoriality and conspecific recognition. To understand how such complex mixtures are represented in the main olfactory bulb, we analysed the electrophysiological responses of individual mitral cells to volatile compounds in mouse urine. In both males and females, urine volatile compounds evoke robust responses in a small subset of mitral cells. Fractionation of the volatile compounds using gas chromatography showed that out of the hundreds of compounds present, mitral cells are activated by single compounds. One cohort of mitral cells responded exclusively to male urine; these neurons were activated by (methylthio)methanethiol, a potent, previously unknown semiochemical present only in male urine. When added to urine, synthetic (methylthio)methanethiol significantly enhances urine attractiveness to female mice. We conclude that mitral cells represent natural odorant stimuli by acting as selective feature detectors, and that their activation is largely independent of the presence of other components in the olfactory stimulus.

Suggested Citation

  • Da Yu Lin & Shao-Zhong Zhang & Eric Block & Lawrence C. Katz, 2005. "Encoding social signals in the mouse main olfactory bulb," Nature, Nature, vol. 434(7032), pages 470-477, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:434:y:2005:i:7032:d:10.1038_nature03414
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03414
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03414
    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/nature03414?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kansai Fukumitsu & Misato Kaneko & Teppo Maruyama & Chihiro Yoshihara & Arthur J. Huang & Thomas J. McHugh & Shigeyoshi Itohara & Minoru Tanaka & Kumi O. Kuroda, 2022. "Amylin-Calcitonin receptor signaling in the medial preoptic area mediates affiliative social behaviors in female mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Takuya Osakada & Takayuki Abe & Takumi Itakura & Hiromi Mori & Kentaro K. Ishii & Ryo Eguchi & Ken Murata & Kosuke Saito & Sachiko Haga-Yamanaka & Hiroko Kimoto & Yoshihiro Yoshihara & Kazunari Miyami, 2022. "Hemoglobin in the blood acts as a chemosensory signal via the mouse vomeronasal system," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Wilder Doucette & Diego Restrepo, 2008. "Profound Context-Dependent Plasticity of Mitral Cell Responses in Olfactory Bulb," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-20, October.

    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:434:y:2005:i:7032:d:10.1038_nature03414. 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.