Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Journal of Physiology logoLink to The Journal of Physiology
. 1995 Jul 15;486(Pt 2):517–522. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1995.sp020830

Acceleration of puberty onset in female mice by male urinary proteins.

C Mucignat-Caretta 1, A Caretta 1, A Cavaggioni 1
PMCID: PMC1156539  PMID: 7473215

Abstract

1. Puberty onset in female mice is accelerated by exposure to conspecific adult male urine, which acts through the vomeronasal organ and the accessory olfactory system. A distinctive component of adult male mouse urine is the major urinary protein complex (MUP), which is a lipocalin; it has a hydrophobic pocket that binds small endogenous volatile molecules. The MUP gene family also codes for a hexapeptide, which has four residues in common with the N-terminal region of MUP. 2. MUP, the volatiles bound to MUP and the MUP-related hexapeptide have been tested for the induction of puberty acceleration by measuring the increase in uterus weight related to the first pro-oestrus phase. MUP, together with its bound volatiles, induces puberty acceleration. Its activity is retained even when the volatiles have been removed either by organic extraction or competition displacement with a high-affinity ligand. 3. MUP-related hexapeptide also induces puberty acceleration in female mice. In contrast, the odorants bound to MUP do not exert this effect. 4. It is proposed that the vomeronasal organ contains receptors that recognize the short N-terminal consensus sequence, N-Glu-Glu-Ala-X-Ser (where X is a polar residue), common to both MUP and the hexapeptide.

Full text

PDF
517

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bacchini A., Gaetani E., Cavaggioni A. Pheromone binding proteins of the mouse, Mus musculus. Experientia. 1992 Apr 15;48(4):419–421. doi: 10.1007/BF01923448. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bronson F. H., Maruniak J. A. Male-induced puberty in female mice: evidence for a synergistic action of social cues. Biol Reprod. 1975 Aug;13(1):94–98. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod13.1.94. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Böcskei Z., Groom C. R., Flower D. R., Wright C. E., Phillips S. E., Cavaggioni A., Findlay J. B., North A. C. Pheromone binding to two rodent urinary proteins revealed by X-ray crystallography. Nature. 1992 Nov 12;360(6400):186–188. doi: 10.1038/360186a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cavaggioni A., Findlay J. B., Tirindelli R. Ligand binding characteristics of homologous rat and mouse urinary proteins and pyrazine-binding protein of calf. Comp Biochem Physiol B. 1990;96(3):513–520. doi: 10.1016/0305-0491(90)90049-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Clark A. J., Ghazal P., Bingham R. W., Barrett D., Bishop J. O. Sequence structures of a mouse major urinary protein gene and pseudogene compared. EMBO J. 1985 Dec 1;4(12):3159–3165. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb04059.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Clissold P. M., Hainey S., Bishop J. O. Messenger RNAs coding for mouse major urinary proteins are differentially induced by testosterone. Biochem Genet. 1984 Apr;22(3-4):379–387. doi: 10.1007/BF00484236. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dluzen D., Guan X., Vandenbergh J. G. Puberty acceleration in female mice induced with a partially purified male urine extract: effects on catecholamine release from the olfactory bulbs and hypothalamus. Brain Res. 1992 Jul 10;585(1-2):367–371. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(92)91238-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Drickamer L. C. Effects of donor age on urinary chemosignals that influence the timing of first oestrus in young female house mice, Mus domesticus. J Reprod Fertil. 1988 Jul;83(2):829–834. doi: 10.1530/jrf.0.0830829. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Flower D. R., North A. C., Attwood T. K. Structure and sequence relationships in the lipocalins and related proteins. Protein Sci. 1993 May;2(5):753–761. doi: 10.1002/pro.5560020507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jiang X. C., Inouchi J., Wang D., Halpern M. Purification and characterization of a chemoattractant from electric shock-induced earthworm secretion, its receptor binding, and signal transduction through the vomeronasal system of garter snakes. J Biol Chem. 1990 May 25;265(15):8736–8744. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kaneko N., Debski E. A., Wilson M. C., Whitten W. K. Puberty acceleration in mice. II. Evidence that the vomeronasal organ isa receptor for the primer pheromone in male mouse urine. Biol Reprod. 1980 May;22(4):873–878. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod22.4.873. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Lombardi J. R., Vandenbergh J. G. Pheromonally induced sexual maturation in females: regulation by the social environment of the male. Science. 1977 Apr 29;196(4289):545–546. doi: 10.1126/science.557838. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Novotny M., Harvey S., Jemiolo B., Alberts J. Synthetic pheromones that promote inter-male aggression in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Apr;82(7):2059–2061. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.7.2059. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Novotny M., Jemiolo B., Harvey S., Wiesler D., Marchlewska-Koj A. Adrenal-mediated endogenous metabolites inhibit puberty in female mice. Science. 1986 Feb 14;231(4739):722–725. doi: 10.1126/science.3945805. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Schwyzer R. Molecular mechanism of opioid receptor selection. Biochemistry. 1986 Oct 7;25(20):6335–6342. doi: 10.1021/bi00368a075. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Singer A. G., Macrides F., Clancy A. N., Agosta W. C. Purification and analysis of a proteinaceous aphrodisiac pheromone from hamster vaginal discharge. J Biol Chem. 1986 Oct 5;261(28):13323–13326. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Vandenbergh J. G., Finlayson J. S., Dobrogosz W. J., Dills S. S., Kost T. A. Chromatographic separation of puberty accelerating pheromone from male mouse urine. Biol Reprod. 1976 Sep;15(2):260–265. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod15.2.260. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Vandenbergh J. G. Male odor accelerates female sexual maturation in mice. Endocrinology. 1969 Mar;84(3):658–660. doi: 10.1210/endo-84-3-658. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Vandenbergh J. G., Whitsett J. M., Lombardi J. R. Partial isolation of a pheromone accelerating puberty in female mice. J Reprod Fertil. 1975 Jun;43(3):515–523. doi: 10.1530/jrf.0.0430515. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. al-Shawi R., Ghazal P., Clark A. J., Bishop J. O. Intraspecific evolution of a gene family coding for urinary proteins. J Mol Evol. 1989 Oct;29(4):302–313. doi: 10.1007/BF02103618. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Physiology are provided here courtesy of The Physiological Society

RESOURCES