Exploring the vomeronasal organ in an endangered antelope species

Abstract

The dama gazelle is a threatened and scarcely studied species of northern Africa. Human pressure has depleted the population of dama gazelles from tens of thousands to a few hundred individuals. Since 1970, after deriving from a founder population of the last 17 surviving individuals in the Western Sahara, it has been reproduced naturally in captivity. Although certain aspects of the reproductive biology of the dama gazelle have been established in preparation for the future implementation of assisted reproductive technology there is a lack of information regarding the role of semiochemical-mediated communication in the sexual behavior of the dama gazelle. This is partially due to the lack of a neuroanatomical and morphofunctional characterization of the dama gazelle vomeronasal organ (VNO); the sensory organ responsible for the processing of pheromones. This study aims to determine the presence in the dama gazelle of a VNO fully equipped to carry out its neurosensory function and to contribute to the understanding of the interspecific variability of the VNO of ruminants. Employing histological, lectin-histochemical and immunohistochemical techniques we have performed a detailed morphofunctional evaluation of the dama gazelle VNO along its entire longitudinal axis. The findings suggest that studies of the VNO should take a similar approach, as there are significant structural and neurochemical transformations that the organ exhibits as a whole. This study contributes to the understanding of the VNO in dama gazelles and provides a basis for future studies on semiochemical-mediated communication and reproductive management of this species.

The vomeronasal system of the wolf (Canis lupus signatus): The singularities of a wild canid

“…The slides were stained using haematoxylin-eosin, Alcian Blue (AB) and Gallego's Trichome stains (Ortiz-Hidalgo, 2011). The staining protocols are explained in detail in Salazar et al (2003) and Torres, Ortiz-Leal, Ferreiro, et al (2023).…”

Do fossorial water voles have a functional vomeronasal organ? A histological and immunohistochemical study

“…Part of the challenge stems from a lack of anatomical information, which would clearly delineate the morphological and functional basis of the main system responsible for detecting chemical cues-the VNS. Although there is a substantial amount of information available on the VNS of mammals (Halpern, 1987;Halpern & Martínez-Marcos, 2003;Torres et al, 2023;Wysocki, 1979), we are currently experiencing a situation in which genomic knowledge has outpaced its morphological counterpart. There is a discernible disparity between these two domains, with geneticists themselves calling for anatomical information on which to base their genomic or transcriptomic observations (Yohe & Krell, 2023;Zhang & Nikaido, 2020).…”

“…The two fundamental chemical senses involved in chemical communication are the main olfactory system (Salazar et al, 2019) and the vomeronasal system (VNS) (Halpern & Martínez-Marcos, 2003;Torres et al, 2023). The olfactory system is responsible for detecting olfactory chemical compounds involved in associative behaviors and learning (Firestein, 2001;Menini, 2010), and operates concurrently with the VNS, which is the olfactory pathway responsible for detecting pheromones (Liberles, 2014), kairomones (Fortes-Marco et al, 2013), and molecules of the major histocompatibility complex (Leinders- .…”