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Darcin: a male pheromone that stimulates female memory and sexual attraction to an individual male's odour.
BMC Biol. 2010; 8:75
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24 Sep 2010
Interesting Hypothesis, New Finding, Novel Drug Target
DOI: 10.3410/f.5256961.5198060
In this remarkable paper, the group of Jane Hurst identifies Darcin, a 19kD protein, as a non-volatile pheromone in the urine of male mice that has the capacity to turn on the imprinting of the female's attraction to the other odorant molecules present in the urine.
Darcin is specifically expressed...Continue reading
Darcin is specifically expressed...Continue reading
In this remarkable paper, the group of Jane Hurst identifies Darcin, a 19kD protein, as a non-volatile pheromone in the urine of male mice that has the capacity to turn on the imprinting of the female's attraction to the other odorant molecules present in the urine.
Darcin is specifically expressed by males, is not polymorphic, and its contact-dependent perception most likely involves detection by vomeronasal neurons expressing V2R receptors. Once they have sniffed volatile or non-volatile allogenic odours in association with Darcin, the females will become attracted to the males harbouring these smells, thereby providing an efficient means of identifying the dominant males, who will be the most proficient at marking their territories, and at the same time avoiding inbreeding because very closely related males will carry very few odours differing from the females own smells, to which they will not be sensitive. This or closely related types of mechanisms could be responsible for the phenomenon of pregnancy block induced in mice by peptides related to those presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. In humans, although olfactory-based clues are certainly less prominently involved in mate choice, it could be that a similar mechanism of pheromone-based imprinting contributes significantly to the Westermarck effect, i.e. the usual lack of sexual attraction between individuals who spent their very early childhood together. On the other hand, if pheromones do exist that can provoke the imprinting of women to become attracted to particular odours, this could become a very dangerous tool in unscrupulous hands wanting to seduce scores of Elisabeths and Bridgets. It would also surely have given even more evil ideas to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, Suskind’s character in Perfume.
Darcin is specifically expressed by males, is not polymorphic, and its contact-dependent perception most likely involves detection by vomeronasal neurons expressing V2R receptors. Once they have sniffed volatile or non-volatile allogenic odours in association with Darcin, the females will become attracted to the males harbouring these smells, thereby providing an efficient means of identifying the dominant males, who will be the most proficient at marking their territories, and at the same time avoiding inbreeding because very closely related males will carry very few odours differing from the females own smells, to which they will not be sensitive. This or closely related types of mechanisms could be responsible for the phenomenon of pregnancy block induced in mice by peptides related to those presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. In humans, although olfactory-based clues are certainly less prominently involved in mate choice, it could be that a similar mechanism of pheromone-based imprinting contributes significantly to the Westermarck effect, i.e. the usual lack of sexual attraction between individuals who spent their very early childhood together. On the other hand, if pheromones do exist that can provoke the imprinting of women to become attracted to particular odours, this could become a very dangerous tool in unscrupulous hands wanting to seduce scores of Elisabeths and Bridgets. It would also surely have given even more evil ideas to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, Suskind’s character in Perfume.
Disclosures
None declared
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Joly E: F1000Prime Recommendation of [Roberts SA et al., BMC Biol 2010, 8:75]. In F1000Prime, 24 Sep 2010; DOI: 10.3410/f.5256961.5198060. F1000Prime.com/5256961#eval5198060
F1000Prime Recommendations, Dissents and Comments for [Roberts SA et al., BMC Biol 2010, 8:75]. In F1000Prime, 24 May 2013; F1000Prime.com/5256961
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Comment by:
Richard Grant,
F1000
10 Jan 2011, 3:57 PM
10 Jan 2011, 3:57 PM
This paper was our 'Hidden Jewel' in January's The Scientist magazine: http://www.the-scientist.com/2011/1/1/17/1/
Disclosures:
None declared.
BACKGROUND: Among invertebrates, specific pheromones elicit inherent (fixed) behavioural responses to coordinate social behaviours such as sexual recognition and attraction. By contrast, the much more complex social odours of mammals provide a broad range of information about the individual owner and stimulate individual-specific responses that are modulated by learning. How do mammals use such odours to coordinate important social interactions such as sexual attraction while allowing for individual-specific choice? We hypothesized that male mouse urine contains a specific pheromonal component that invokes inherent sexual attraction to the scent and which also stimulates female memory and conditions sexual attraction to the airborne odours of an individual scent owner associated with this pheromone.
RESULTS: Using wild-stock house mice to ensure natural responses that generalize across individual genomes, we identify a single atypical male-specific major urinary protein (MUP) of mass 18893Da that invokes a female's inherent sexual attraction to male compared to female urinary scent. Attraction to this protein pheromone, which we named darcin, was as strong as the attraction to intact male urine. Importantly, contact with darcin also stimulated a strong learned attraction to the associated airborne urinary odour of an individual male, such that, subsequently, females were attracted to the airborne scent of that specific individual but not to that of other males.
CONCLUSIONS: This involatile protein is a mammalian male sex pheromone that stimulates a flexible response to individual-specific odours through associative learning and memory, allowing female sexual attraction to be inherent but selective towards particular males. This 'darcin effect' offers a new system to investigate the neural basis of individual-specific memories in the brain and give new insights into the regulation of behaviour in complex social mammals.See associated Commentary http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/71.
PMID: 20525243
