ArticlePloS one2017
Different methods for volatile sampling in mammals.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multimodal fertility cues in chimpanzees: how body odours complement sexual swellings.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Experimental Assessment of the Effects of Substrate Choice on the Duration of Chemical Signals in Fecal Scent-Marks of Free-Ranging Iberian Wolves.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2026Article
- Unintended VOC emissions from cotton and viscose pads complicate olfactory experiments.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Urine washing and urinary odour profiles in relation to dominance rank status in wild male capuchin monkeys (Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Enhanced sensitivity to odors due to chemosignals associated with anxiety.Communications chemistry · 2025Article
- Combined perceptual and chemical analyses show no compelling evidence for ovulatory cycle shifts in women's axillary odour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Design and test of novel scent enrichments to enhance breeding of zoo-housed lemurs.F1000Research · 2024Article
- The Scent Enriched Primate.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- A comparison between mobile and stationary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry devices for analysis of complex volatile profiles.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2023Article
- Towards an understanding of multimodal traits of female reproduction in chimpanzees.Primates; journal of primatology · 2022Article
- Volatile Components and Preliminary Antibacterial Activity of Tamarillo (Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Assessing urinary odours across the oestrous cycle in a mouse model using portable and benchtop gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Sexual Dimorphism in Crowned Lemur Scent-Marking.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Scent Marks Signal Species, Sex, and Reproductive Status in Tamarins (Saguinus spp., Neotropical Primates).Chemical senses · 2021Article
- Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds May Help Reduce Pollinator-Prey Overlap in the Carnivorous Plant Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae).Journal of chemical ecology · 2021Article
- Design, delivery and perception of condition-dependent chemical signals in strepsirrhine primates: implications for human olfactory communication.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Interdisciplinary challenges for elucidating human olfactory attractiveness.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- What smells? Developing in-field methods to characterize the chemical composition of wild mammalian scent cues.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Chemical cues of female fertility states in a non-human primate.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- A breath of information: the volatilome.Current genetics · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previous studies showed that olfactory cues are important for mammalian communication. However, many specific compounds that convey information between conspecifics are still unknown. To understand mechanisms and functions of olfactory cues, olfactory signals such as volatile compounds emitted from individuals need to be assessed. Sampling of animals with and without scent glands was typically conducted using cotton swabs rubbed over the skin or fur and analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). However, this method has various drawbacks, including a high level of contaminations. Thus, we adapted two methods of volatile sampling from other research fields and compared them to sampling with cotton swabs. To do so we assessed the body odor of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) using cotton swabs, thermal desorption (TD) tubes and, alternatively, a mobile GC-MS device containing a thermal desorption trap. Overall, TD tubes comprised most compounds (N = 113), with half of those compounds being volatile (N = 52). The mobile GC-MS captured the fewest compounds (N = 35), of which all were volatile. Cotton swabs contained an intermediate number of compounds (N = 55), but very few volatiles (N = 10). Almost all compounds found with the mobile GC-MS were also captured with TD tubes (94%). Hence, we recommend TD tubes for state of the art sampling of body odor of mammals or other vertebrates, particularly for field studies, as they can be easily transported, stored and analysed with high performance instruments in the lab. Nevertheless, cotton swabs capture compounds which still may contribute to the body odor, e.g. after bacterial fermentation, while profiles from mobile GC-MS include only the most abundant volatiles of the body odor.
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