期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1992
卷号：89
期号：7
页码：2756-2758
DOI：10.1073/pnas.89.7.2756
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The extended H-2 complex of genes in the mouse includes at least three loci that independently specify distinctive body odors, "odortypes," whose differential recognition influences mating choice and affects the maintenance of early pregnancy. A prime experimental method of identifying H-2 odortypes is the specially designed Y-maze in which mice are trained, by water deprivation and reward, to distinguish odors conducted to the arms of the maze from H-2-dissimilar mice or their urines. It is confirmed that H-2-dissimilar infant mice, unlike adult mice, are not distinguished by trained mice in the Y-maze. However, a previous conclusion that infant mice do not express H-2 odortypes is shown to be incorrect, because the urines of H-2-dissimilar infant mice, even at 1 day of age, were distinguished in the Y-maze. Thus urine, ingested by the mother, clearly could suffice for her to distinguish her own from other H-2-dissimilar pups. Further, urine would seem to be a unique source of H-2 odortypes. If, as we believe, H-2 odortypes represent mostly compound odors composed by H-2 genetic variation in the urinary output of odorous metabolites, as distinct from simple odors that depend on chemical differences of single odorants, then the kidney, which is not responsible for H-2 odortype specificity, may nevertheless impart a unique character to urinary odortypes by virtue of differential excretion/resorption processing of various constituent odorous metabolites. In that case, various organs and tissues, among which the hematopoietic/lymphoid system is known to contribute to H-2 odortype specificity, may exhibit tissue-specific varieties of H-2 odortypes, their products having not yet been subjected to renal processing.
