Pheromones and their receptors are the molecules used by very different organisms in order to join two haploid cells. It happens evidently in yeast, since the two blending haploid cells are also the two mating organisms, whereas in rodents pheromone receptors are the triggers of the vomeronasal system which, supervising sexual behaviors, is responsible for copulation and therefore for fertilization. The debate is still open about the real significance of pheromones in humans but a working vomeronasal organ, able to recognize pheromones of the same sex, could be the simplest biological explanation of homosexuality. This hypothesis is discussed and connected with some well known experimental data.
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Thyroid
January 2025
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Thyroid hormones (TH) play a key role in fetal brain development. While severe thyroid dysfunction, has been shown to cause neurodevelopmental and reproductive disorders, the rising levels of TH-disruptors in the environment in the past few decades have increased the need to assess effects of subclinical (mild) TH insufficiency during gestation. Since embryos do not produce their own TH before mid-gestation, early development processes rely on maternal production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Mol Sci
December 2024
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Bugnon 27, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Olfactory sensitivity to odorant molecules is a complex biological function influenced by both endogenous factors, such as genetic background and physiological state, and exogenous factors, such as environmental conditions. In animals, this vital ability is mediated by olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), which are distributed across several specialized olfactory subsystems depending on the species. Using the phosphorylation of the ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6) in OSNs following sensory stimulation, we developed an ex vivo assay allowing the simultaneous conditioning and odorant stimulation of different mouse olfactory subsystems, including the main olfactory epithelium, the vomeronasal organ, and the Grueneberg ganglion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpecialized chemosensory signals elicit innate social behaviors in individuals of several vertebrate species, a process that is mediated via the accessory olfactory system (AOS). The AOS comprising the peripheral sensory vomeronasal organ has evolved elaborate molecular and cellular mechanisms to detect chemo signals. To gain insight into the cell types, developmental gene expression patterns, and functional differences amongst neurons, we performed single-cell transcriptomics of the mouse vomeronasal sensory epithelium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Biosci
December 2024
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Biosciences,Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science,Bengaluru 560012,India.
The well-known English naturalist John Ray wrote more than 200 years ago about the curious reaction of cats to a plant in the mint or Lamiaceae family, the catnip plant . Ray even wrote a short verse about the relationship between cats and catnip: 'If you set it the cats will eat it; If you sow it the cats can't know it' (Considine 2016). When leaves of this plant are bruised and release their volatiles, cats react by attempting to rub and roll over on the leaves, seeming to be in a state of ecstasy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElife
December 2024
Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, United States.
We have generated single cell transcriptomic atlases of vomeronasal organs (VNO) from juvenile and adult mice. Combined with spatial molecular imaging, we uncover a distinct, previously unidentified class of cells that express the vomeronasal receptors (VRs) and a population of canonical olfactory sensory neurons in the VNO. High-resolution trajectory and cluster analyses reveal the lineage relationship, spatial distribution of cell types, and a putative cascade of molecular events that specify the V1r, V2r, and OR lineages from a common stem cell population.
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