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Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Robert R. H. Anholt, Department of Zoology, Box 7617, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695.
Social behaviors of most mammals are profoundly affected by chemical
signals, pheromones, exchanged between conspecifics. Pheromones
interact with dendritic microvilli of bipolar neurons in the
vomeronasal organ (VNO). To investigate vomeronasal signal transduction
pathways, microvillar membranes from porcine VNO were prepared.
Incubation of such membranes from prepubertal females with boar seminal
fluid or urine results in an increase in production of inositol-(1, 4,
5)-trisphosphate (IP3). The dose response for
IP3 production is biphasic with a GTP-dependent component
at low stimulus concentrations and a nonspecific increase in
IP3 at higher stimulus concentrations. The GTP-dependent
stimulation is mimicked by GTP
S and blocked by GDPßS. Furthermore,
the GTP-dependent component of the stimulation of IP3
production is sex specific and tissue dependent. Studies with
monospecific antibodies reveal a G
q/11-related
protein in vomeronasal neurons, concentrated at their microvilli. Our
observations indicate that pheromones in boar secretions act on
vomeronasal neurons in the female VNO via a receptor mediated, G
protein-dependent increase in IP3. These observations set
the stage for further investigations on the regulation of
stimulus-excitation coupling in vomeronasal neurons. The
pheromone-induced IP3 response also provides an assay for
future purification of mammalian reproductive pheromones.
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