ArticlePloS one2013
Pyrazine analogues are active components of wolf urine that induce avoidance and freezing behaviours in mice.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Generation of Odorant Receptor-QF2 Knock-In Drivers for Improved Analysis of Olfactory Circuits in Drosophila.Genes to cells : devoted to molecular & cellular mechanisms · 2025Article
- Common scents? A review of potentially shared chemical signals in the order Carnivora.Chemical senses · 2025Review
- Flavour chemistry and metabolic engineering of microbial synthetic pyrazines: decoding the path to green manufacturing of food aroma components.Current research in food science · 2025Review
- Behavioral and neurobiological implications of kairomones for rodents: an updated review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- Pheromone of grouped female mice impairs genome stability in male mice through stress-mediated pathways.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Modeling the Orthosteric Binding Site of the G Protein-Coupled Odorant Receptor OR5K1.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2023Article
- Article
- Repeated exposure to kairomone-containing coffee odor improves abnormal olfactory behaviors in heterozygous oxytocin receptor knock-in mice.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- An evolutionary conserved olfactory receptor for foodborne and semiochemical alkylpyrazines.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2021Article
- Avoidance behaviour in laboratory house mice (Musmusculus) and Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) towards predator odours.PloS one · 2021Article
- The Grueneberg ganglion: signal transduction and coding in an olfactory and thermosensory organ involved in the detection of alarm pheromones and predator-secreted kairomones.Cell and tissue research · 2021Review
- Article
- Article
- Quantifying defence cascade responses as indicators of pig affect and welfare using computer vision methods.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Electrophysiological Responses of Eighteen Species of Insects to Fire Ant Alarm Pheromone.Insects · 2019Article
- Article
- Characterizing the scent and chemical composition of Panthera leo marking fluid using solid-phase microextraction and multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Structure-Activity Relationships of Alkylpyrazine Analogs and Fear-Associated Behaviors in Mice.Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Article
- The scent of wolves: pyrazine analogs induce avoidance and vigilance behaviors in prey.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2015Review
- Avoidance learning: a review of theoretical models and recent developments.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe common grey wolf (Canis lupus) is found throughout the entire Northern hemisphere and preys on many kinds of mammals. The urine of the wolf contains a number of volatile constituents that can potentially be used for predator-prey chemosignalling. Although wolf urine is put to practical use to keep rabbits, rodents, deer and so on at bay, we are unaware of any prior behavioural studies or chemical analyses regarding the fear-inducing impact of wolf urine on laboratory mice. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsThree wolf urine samples harvested at different times were used in this study. All of them induced stereotypical fear-associated behaviors (i.e., avoidance and freezing) in female mice. The levels of certain urinary volatiles varied widely among the samples. To identify the volatiles that provoked avoidance and freezing, behavioural, chemical, and immunohistochemical analyses were performed. One of the urine samples (sample C) had higher levels of 2,6-dimethylpyrazine (DMP), trimethylpyrazine (TMP), and 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethyl pyrazine (EDMP) compared with the other two urine samples (samples A and B). In addition, sample C induced avoidance and freezing behaviours more effectively than samples A and B. Moreover, only sample C led to pronounced expression of Fos-immunoreactive cells in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) of female mice. Freezing behaviour and Fos immunoreactivity were markedly enhanced when the mice were confronted with a mixture of purified DMP, TMP, and EDMP vs. any one pyrazine alone. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The current results suggest that wolf urinary volatiles can engender aversive and fear-related responses in mice. Pyrazine analogues were identified as the predominant active components among these volatiles to induce avoidance and freezing behaviours via stimulation of the murine AOB.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.