ArticleNature2013
A juvenile mouse pheromone inhibits sexual behaviour through the vomeronasal system.
Article in Nature, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 185 citations in OpenAlex.
- Coordination of social behaviors by the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.The European journal of neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Brain circuits that regulate social behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Cold-Sensing TRP Channels and Temperature Preference Modulate Ovarian Development in the Model OrganismInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Hypothalamic representation of the imminence of predator threat detected by the vomeronasal organ in mice.eLife · 2024Article
- Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Organization of the Mouse Vomeronasal organ at Single Cell Resolution.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Neural basis for pheromone signal transduction in mice.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2024Review
- Stimulus-Induced Theta-Band LFP Oscillations Format Neuronal Representations of Social Chemosignals in the Mouse Accessory Olfactory Bulb.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- A chemical signal in human female tears lowers aggression in males.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Body stiffness is a mechanical property that facilitates contact-mediated mate recognition in Caenorhabditis elegans.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Natural and Pathological Aging Distinctively Impacts the Pheromone Detection System and Social Behavior.Molecular neurobiology · 2023Article
- Reproductives signature revealed by protein profiling and behavioral bioassays in termite.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Contactin-6-deficient male mice exhibit the abnormal function of the accessory olfactory system and impaired reproductive behavior.Brain and behavior · 2023Article
- Behavioral evidence of the functional interaction between the main and accessory olfactory system suggests a large olfactory system with a high plastic capability.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2023Review
- Indirect Genetic Effects: A Cross-disciplinary Perspective on Empirical Studies.The Journal of heredity · 2022Article
- At the heart of the interoception network: Influence of the parasubthalamic nucleus on autonomic functions and motivated behaviors.Neuropharmacology · 2022Review
- Hemoglobin in the blood acts as a chemosensory signal via the mouse vomeronasal system.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Cupid's quiver: Integrating sensory cues in rodent mating systems.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2022Review
- Emotional expression in human odour.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022Review
- Flexibility of neural circuits regulating mating behaviors in mice and flies.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2022Review
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Animals display a repertoire of different social behaviours. Appropriate behavioural responses depend on sensory input received during social interactions. In mice, social behaviour is driven by pheromones, chemical signals that encode information related to age, sex and physiological state. However, although mice show different social behaviours towards adults, juveniles and neonates, sensory cues that enable specific recognition of juvenile mice are unknown. Here we describe a juvenile pheromone produced by young mice before puberty, termed exocrine-gland secreting peptide 22 (ESP22). ESP22 is secreted from the lacrimal gland and released into tears of 2- to 3-week-old mice. Upon detection, ESP22 activates high-affinity sensory neurons in the vomeronasal organ, and downstream limbic neurons in the medial amygdala. Recombinant ESP22, painted on mice, exerts a powerful inhibitory effect on adult male mating behaviour, which is abolished in knockout mice lacking TRPC2, a key signalling component of the vomeronasal organ. Furthermore, knockout of TRPC2 or loss of ESP22 production results in increased sexual behaviour of adult males towards juveniles, and sexual responses towards ESP22-deficient juveniles are suppressed by ESP22 painting. Thus, we describe a pheromone of sexually immature mice that controls an innate social behaviour, a response pathway through the accessory olfactory system and a new role for vomeronasal organ signalling in inhibiting sexual behaviour towards young. These findings provide a molecular framework for understanding how a sensory system can regulate behaviour.
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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.