• Animal cells and systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.233-237
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• 2002

The pheromonal repelling response occurs when a combination of female and male pheromones is found to be less attractive to courting males than are female pheromones alone. This repelling response may act to conserve a courting males’reproductive fitness by minimizing ma1e-male competition within a courting group. Recently, a Pheromonal repelling response was first reported for vertebrates in the red-spotted newt, Notophthalmus viride-scens. A male cloacal pheromone, a ∼33 kDa protein, was identified as a repelling pheromone. In this study, to determine whether both the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) and/or the vomeronasal organ (VNO) are activated by the repelling pheromone, we recorded electrical field potentials from both olfactory epithelia while applying the repelling pheromone. The repelling pheromone induced electrical responses from both olfactory organs, and the magnitude of the response was greater in the VNO than in the MOE. Our results suggest that both the VNO and MOE may be involved in the pheromonal repelling response.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.287-292
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• 2002

Functional characterization of sex pheromones in olfactory responses is essential for the study of chemical communications in amphibians. Using Y-maze olfactory preference tests, we have investigated the olfactory res-ponses of male and female red-spotted newts, Notophthalmus viridescens, to the crude extracts of the opposite sex's genial and cloacal pheromones. Both male and female cloacal pheromone extracts caused the opposite sex to initiate olfactory responses by leaving the starting area in the Y-maze, but only subject males exposed to female cloacal pheromone extracts completed olfactory choice by entering the side arm of the Y-maze which received the pheromones. For genial pheromone extracts, only female genial pheromone extracts induced initial olfactory responses from test males. Neither male nor female genial pheromone extracts made the oppo-site sex complete olfactory choice. Pre-exposure of test females to male pheromone extracts increased the likelihood of initial olfactory responses. The latency for initial olfactory responses of test females that were previously exposed to male genial extracts was significantly shorter than that of control females.