| Title: | Maternally inherited peptides as strain-specific chemosignals |
| Author(s): | Kaba H; Fujita H; Agatsuma T; Matsunami H; |
| Address: | "Department of Physiology, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, Nankoku, 783-8505 Kochi, Japan; kabah@kochi-u.ac.jp hiroaki.matsunami@duke.edu. Department of Physiology, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, Nankoku, 783-8505 Kochi, Japan. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, Nankoku, 783-8505 Kochi, Japan. Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710; kabah@kochi-u.ac.jp hiroaki.matsunami@duke.edu. Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710. Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1091-6490 (Electronic) 0027-8424 (Print) 0027-8424 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Most mammals rely on chemosensory cues for individual recognition, which is essential to many aspects of social behavior, such as maternal bonding, mate recognition, and inbreeding avoidance. Both volatile molecules and nonvolatile peptides secreted by individual conspecifics are detected by olfactory sensory neurons in the olfactory epithelium and the vomeronasal organ. The pertinent cues used for individual recognition remain largely unidentified. Here we show that nonformylated, but not N-formylated, mitochondrially encoded peptides-that is, the nine N-terminal amino acids of NADH dehydrogenases 1 and 2-can be used to convey strain-specific information among individual mice. We demonstrate that these nonformylated peptides are sufficient to induce a strain-selective pregnancy block. We also observed that the pregnancy block by an unfamiliar peptide derived from a male of a different strain was prevented by a memory formed at the time of mating with that male. Our findings also demonstrate that pregnancy-blocking chemosignals in the urine are maternally inherited, as evidenced by the production of reciprocal sons from two inbred strains and our test of their urine's ability to block pregnancy. We propose that this link between polymorphic mitochondrial peptides and individual recognition provides the molecular means to communicate an individual's maternal lineage and strain" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Female Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/genetics/metabolism Male *Maternal Inheritance Mice Mice, Inbred BALB C Mitochondria/genetics/metabolism NADH Dehydrogenase/genetics/metabolism Olfactory Bulb Peptides/*genetics/*metabolism *Phe;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineKaba, Hideto Fujita, Hiroko Agatsuma, Takeshi Matsunami, Hiroaki eng R01 DC014423/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ R01 DC016224/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. 2020/11/18 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 1; 117(48):30738-30743. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2014712117. Epub 2020 Nov 16" |
