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PLoS One

Title:		Analysis of male pheromones that accelerate female reproductive organ development
Author(s):		Flanagan KA; Webb W; Stowers L;
Address:		"Department of Cell Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America"
Journal Title:		PLoS One
Year:		2011
Volume:		20110208
Issue:		2
Page Number:		e16660 -
DOI:		10.1371/journal.pone.0016660
ISSN/ISBN:		1932-6203 (Electronic) 1932-6203 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Male odors can influence a female's reproductive physiology. In the mouse, the odor of male urine results in an early onset of female puberty. Several volatile and protein pheromones have previously been reported to each account for this bioactivity. Here we bioassay inbred BALB/cJ females to study pheromone-accelerated uterine growth, a developmental hallmark of puberty. We evaluate the response of wild-type and mutant mice lacking a specialized sensory transduction channel, TrpC2, and find TrpC2 function to be necessary for pheromone-mediated uterine growth. We analyze the relative effectiveness of pheromones previously identified to accelerate puberty through direct bioassay and find none to significantly accelerate uterine growth in BALB/cJ females. Complementary to this analysis, we have devised a strategy of partial purification of the uterine growth bioactivity from male urine and applied it to purify bioactivity from three different laboratory strains. The biochemical characteristics of the active fraction of all three strains are inconsistent with that of previously known pheromones. When directly analyzed, we are unable to detect previously known pheromones in urine fractions that generate uterine growth. Our analysis indicates that pheromones emitted by males to advance female puberty remain to be identified"
Keywords:		"Animals Biological Assay Female Inbreeding Male Mice Mice, Inbred BALB C Mutation Organ Size/drug effects Pheromones/*pharmacology/urine Puberty/drug effects/genetics/physiology Species Specificity TRPC Cation Channels/genetics Time Factors Uterus/*drug e;"
Notes:		"MedlineFlanagan, Kelly A Webb, William Stowers, Lisa eng R01 DC006885/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ R01 DC009413/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ 2R01DC006885/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ 1R01CD009413/CD/ODCDC CDC HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2011/02/25 PLoS One. 2011 Feb 8; 6(2):e16660. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016660"