Abstract
In the latter half of twentieth century, much has been learned about chemical communication in house mice (Mus musculus). It is known that urine of mice can signal information about strain, physiological state (estrus or diestrus, stressed or not), social status, and so on (Brown, 1979). Some of the volatile semiochemicals in urine have been identified (Novotny et al., 1985; Harvey et al., 1989; Novotny et al., 1999b), and Major Urinary Protein (MUP) has also been found to function as a conveyance that delivers the semiochemicals to receptor (Novotny et al., 1999a). Recent evidence suggests that MUP acts as a “storage and releasing system” that lengthens the persistence of such semiochemicals by binding with them and gradually releasing them (Hurst et al., 1998; Novotny et al., 1999a).
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Koyama, S., Kamimura, S. (2001). Effects of Social Dominance and Female Odor on Sperm Activity of Male Mice. In: Marchlewska-Koj, A., Lepri, J.J., Müller-Schwarze, D. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 9. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0671-3_55
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