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Genetic imprinting

Urinary odour preferences in mice

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Abstract

Odour cues influence a variety of social activities in mammals, including kin recognition, mate selection, inbreeding avoidance and juvenile dispersal from the natal area1,2,3. Inbreeding avoidance is particularly evident across the mammalian phyla because inbreeding can cause a reduction in fitness4. Here we show that the attraction of mice to the urinary odours of other mice is subject to a 'parent-of-origin' effect5 which causes both males and females to prefer the odour of urine from mice of an unrelated strain to that of urine from mice of the same strain as their mothers.

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Figure 1: Odour preference of reciprocal-cross F1 males and females for female urinary odours.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cognitive and Developmental Neuroscience, Babraham Institute, Babraham, CB2 4AT, UK

    Anthony R. Isles, Dan Ma & Nicholas D. Allen

  2. Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, Madingley, CB3 8AA, UK

    Anthony R. Isles, Dan Ma & Eric B. Keverne

  3. Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael J. Baum

Authors
  1. Anthony R. Isles
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  2. Michael J. Baum
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  3. Dan Ma
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  4. Eric B. Keverne
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  5. Nicholas D. Allen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicholas D. Allen.

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Isles, A., Baum, M., Ma, D. et al. Urinary odour preferences in mice. Nature 409, 783–784 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35057323

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