Publication Date:
2004-11-06
Description:
The mammalian vomeronasal organ detects social information about gender, status, and individuality. The molecular cues carrying this information remain largely unknown. Here, we show that small peptides that serve as ligands for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules function also as sensory stimuli for a subset of vomeronasal sensory neurons located in the basal Gao- and V2R receptor-expressing zone of the vomeronasal epithelium. In behaving mice, the same peptides function as individuality signals underlying mate recognition in the context of pregnancy block. MHC peptides constitute a previously unknown family of chemosensory stimuli by which MHC genotypic diversity can influence social behavior.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Leinders-Zufall, Trese -- Brennan, Peter -- Widmayer, Patricia -- S, Prashanth Chandramani -- Maul-Pavicic, Andrea -- Jager, Martina -- Li, Xiao-Hong -- Breer, Heinz -- Zufall, Frank -- Boehm, Thomas -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Nov 5;306(5698):1033-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15528444" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Action Potentials
;
Animals
;
Chemoreceptor Cells
;
Female
;
H-2 Antigens/metabolism
;
Histocompatibility Antigens Class I/*metabolism
;
Ligands
;
Male
;
Mice
;
Mice, Inbred C57BL
;
Olfactory Receptor Neurons/metabolism
;
Peptides/*metabolism
;
Receptors, Vasopressin/metabolism
;
*Signal Transduction
;
Smell/physiology
;
Urine
;
Vomeronasal Organ/*metabolism
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
