ArticleJournal of evolutionary biology2015
Protein pheromone expression levels predict and respond to the formation of social dominance networks.
Article in Journal of evolutionary biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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32 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Context Alters Chemical Signalling and Endocrine Profiles in Two Mouse Subspecies.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
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- The Expansion of House Mouse Major Urinary Protein Genes Likely Did Not Facilitate Commensalism with Humans.Genes · 2023Article
- Increased paternal corticosterone exposure influences offspring behaviour and expression of urinary pheromones.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Inheritance of social dominance is associated with global sperm DNA methylation in inbred male mice.Current zoology · 2023Article
- Dynamic changes to signal allocation rules in response to variable social environments in house mice.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Scent mark signal investment predicts fight dynamics in house mice.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Dynamic influences on the neural encoding of social valence.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2022Review
- Friend virus severity is associated with male mouse social status and environmental temperature.Animal behaviour · 2022Article
- Behavioural and physiological plasticity in social hierarchies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Regulation of Sexually Dimorphic Expression of Major Urinary Proteins.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
- Pheromones that correlate with reproductive success in competitive conditions.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Male pheromones and their reception by females are co-adapted to affect mating success in two subspecies of brown rats.Current zoology · 2021Article
- Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus Alters the Expression of Male Mouse Scent Proteins.Viruses · 2021Article
- Effect of relative social rank within a social hierarchy on neural activation in response to familiar or unfamiliar social signals.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
- Who's the Boss? Assessing Convergent Validity of Aggression Based Dominance Measures in Male Laboratory Mice,Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Article
- Vulpeculin: a novel and abundant lipocalin in the urine of the common brushtail possum,Open biology · 2020Article
- Proteome characterization of used nesting material and potential protein sources from group housed male mice, Mus musculus.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Update on the human and mouse lipocalin (LCN) gene family, including evidence the mouse Mup cluster is result of an "evolutionary bloom".Human genomics · 2019Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Communication signals are key regulators of social networks and are thought to be under selective pressure to honestly reflect social status, including dominance status. The odours of dominants and nondominants differentially influence behaviour, and identification of the specific pheromones associated with, and predictive of, dominance status is essential for understanding the mechanisms of network formation and maintenance. In mice, major urinary proteins (MUPs) are excreted in extraordinary large quantities and expression level has been hypothesized to provide an honest signal of dominance status. Here, we evaluate whether MUPs are associated with dominance in wild-derived mice by analysing expression levels before, during and after competition for reproductive resources over 3 days. During competition, dominant males have 24% greater urinary MUP expression than nondominants. The MUP darcin, a pheromone that stimulates female attraction, is predictive of dominance status: dominant males have higher darcin expression before competition. Dominants also have a higher ratio of darcin to other MUPs before and during competition. These differences appear transient, because there are no differences in MUPs or darcin after competition. We also find MUP expression is affected by sire dominance status: socially naive sons of dominant males have lower MUP expression, but this apparent repression is released during competition. A requisite condition for the evolution of communication signals is honesty, and we provide novel insight into pheromones and social networks by showing that MUP and darcin expression is a reliable signal of dominance status, a primary determinant of male fitness in many species.
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