The pheromone darcin drives a circuit for innate and reinforced behaviours

The Power of Infochemicals in Mediating Individualized Niches

“…social niche construction [38]. In mammals, scent marks are commonly used to define virtual borders, to deter potential intruders or to attract potential mates [31,39,40]. The odor-induced puberty delay in mice can be considered as another example for niche construction.…”

Pathogens, odors, and disgust in rodents

“…Non-volatile MUPs are carriers of volatile ligands that provide information about condition and individual identity ( Stowers and Tsung-Han, 2015 ). In male mice the non-volatile major urinary protein, darcin, elicits innate attraction and serves as an unconditioned stimulus allowing females to recognize and assess individual males on the basis of their odors and scent marks ( Demir et al, 2020 ; Roberts et al 2014). Sick LPS treated male mice whose odors were unattractive to females had reduced levels of darcin in their urine ( Lopes and Konig, 2016 ).…”

“…However, females also avoided the urinary odors of males infected with the nematode, Aspiculuris tetraptrea , whose darcin levels were unchanged ( Lanuza et al, 2014 ). It was speculated that the responses to darcin are dependent on a female’s internal state ( Demir et al, 2020 ) which could potentially be affected by the elicitation of disgust and by other odor components associated with infection threat. In this regard female mice displayed similar aversive responses to just the volatile odor components (non-volatile components were effectively stopped by a nitrocellulsoe membrane, ( Nevison et al, 2003 )) as they did to volatile + nonvolatile components of the fresh urine of nematode infected males ( Kavaliers et al, 2009 ).…”

Physiological and Behavioral Responses to Vocalization Playback in Mice

“…The social vocalizations of mice, like those of humans and other vertebrates, reflect the internal state of the sender and influence the internal state and behavior of the listener. There has been an extensive study in mice of the caller’s production of vocalizations, focusing on the behavioral contexts within which the vocalizations are emitted (Nyby, 1983 ; Maggio and Whitney, 1985 ; Holy and Guo, 2005 ; Wang et al, 2008 ; Williams et al, 2008 ; Grimsley et al, 2011 , 2016 ; Hanson and Hurley, 2012 ; Sangiamo et al, 2020 ) and how vocal behavior is altered by internal state (Gaub et al, 2016 ; Grimsley et al, 2016 ; Demir et al, 2020 ) and in disease models (Scattoni et al, 2008 ; Wöhr et al, 2011 ; Belagodu et al, 2016 ). However, few studies have examined the effect of mouse vocalizations on the listener.…”