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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1994 Apr 26;91(9):3735–3738. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.9.3735

Discrimination of odortypes determined by the major histocompatibility complex among outbred mice.

K Yamazaki 1, G K Beauchamp 1, F W Shen 1, J Bard 1, E A Boyse 1
PMCID: PMC43656  PMID: 8170979

Abstract

Genetically determined body odors that distinguish one mouse from another are termed odortypes. The best known odortypes, highly expressed in urine, are those specified by H-2, the major histocompatibility complex of the mouse, but other odortypes originate from unidentified loci in the rest of the genome, including both sex chromosomes. The definition of H-2 odortypes and evidence that their perception affects reproductive behavior have so far depended on studies with inbred mouse strains whose genetic differences are confined to the H-2 complex of genes. To simulate feral conditions more closely, a freely segregating population was bred from crosses involving four unrelated inbred strains contributing four different H-2 haplotypes. After H-2 typing, this outbred population was divided into four groups of freely segregating mice, comprising the four distinct H-2 genotypes represented, to serve as conventional donors of urine for evaluation in the standard Y-maze system used in the training and testing of mice for H-2 odortype discrimination. With respect to utility in training mice for H-2 odortype discrimination, and to degrees of concordance attained in the Y-maze by trained mice, these urinary H-2 odortype sources from outbred mice were no less effective than urines customarily obtained for those purposes from nonsegregating inbred donors. We conclude that discrimination of H-2 odortypes is not appreciably affected or impaired by the usual concurrent segregation within the genome as a whole.

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Selected References

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

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