New Ingredient For Mouse Attraction

Some men rely on cologne to snag a date. Male mice prefer to use urine. Researchers led by the University of Tokyo’s Kazushige Touhara have discovered a molecule in urine from male mice that increases females’ attraction to the liquid (Nat. Chem. Biol., DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.1164). The compound, a short aliphatic alcohol, joins a potpourri of other known odor cues found in mouse urine. Mice use urine in various social contexts. It contains odor cues that indicate gender, male dominance, pregnancy, and ovulation. Touhara’s team discovered the attraction molecule while trying to find the role of a mouse odor receptor of unknown function. They first expressed the orphan odor receptor in frogs’ oocytes. Then they exposed the receptor to extracts of mouse tears, saliva, urine, and mammary glands and looked for binding. After finding positive results with urine, they did progressive fractionations to finger the binding partner. Finally, the team did animal studies and found that the molecule attracts female mice to male urine.