Behavioral and reproductive responses of female opossums to volatile and nonvolatile components of male suprasternal gland secretion |
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| Institution: | 1. Steinmann Institute, Section Palaeontology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany;2. University of Iceland, Institute of Earth Sciences, Sturlugata 7, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland;3. University of Vienna, Department of Palaeontology, Althanstraße 14 (UZA II), A-1090 Vienna, Austria;4. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;5. CNRS UMR 7205, Muséum National d''Histoire Naturelle, CP 50, Entomologie, 45 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France;6. Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Urriðaholtsstræti 6-8, 212 Garðabær, Iceland;7. A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Leninsky Prospect 33, Moscow 119071, Russia;8. Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1501 Crestline Drive-Suite 140, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA |
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| Abstract: | Female gray short-tailed opossums (Monodelphis domestica) lack an estrous cycle and are induced into estrus by exposure to a pheromone in male scent marks. Behavioral and physiological responses of females to the volatile and nonvolatile components of scent marks were examined in two experiments. Young females (n = 9) were tested prior to and during their first estrus for behavioral responses to scent marks, collected on a 7-ml glass vial rubbed over the suprasternal gland of a mature male. The response to volatile components of the scent mark, recorded when marked and unmarked vials were covered with a perforated shield, was compared to the response to these vials when unshielded. Estrous females nuzzled the shields over marked vials (55.8 ± 8.5 nuzzles/10 min) more than the shielded clean vial (10.9 ± 2.4) (P < 0.05); a similar response was observed in anestrous females. Nuzzling of unshielded, scent-marked vials was higher (P < 0.05) during anestrus than in the same females when in estrus. The role of nonvolatile pheromones in reproductive activation was tested in adult females (n = 11) exposed for up to 14 days to a shielded, marked vial or to an unshielded, marked vial in a crossover design. All females exposed to unshielded vials expressed estrus, and 10 copulated. Only 2 females expressed estrus (significantly fewer, P < 0.05), when exposed to shielded marked vials, and neither copulated. These results demonstrate that females detect and respond behaviorally to both volatile and nonvolatile components of male suprasternal gland secretion, but the estrus-inducing pheromone in these secretions is nonvolatile. |
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