Is the vomeronasal system really specialized for detecting pheromones?

Baxi, Kosha N.; Dorries, Kathleen M.; Eisthen, Heather L.

doi:10.1016/j.tins.2005.10.002

Cited by 148 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Previously, the VNO was regarded as an organ specialized for pheromone detection. However, it now appears that the olfactory and vomeronasal systems have some overlapping functions (Baxi et al 2006). Although the chemical structures of insect pheromones have been well characterized, the molecular identity of mammalian pheromones is still poorly understood with a few exceptions (Dulac and Torello 2003;Brennan and Keverne 2004;Stowers and Marton 2005, and the references therein).…”

Section: Vomeronasal Receptorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolutionary dynamics of olfactory and other chemosensory receptor genes in vertebrates

2006

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The numbers of functional olfactory receptor (OR) genes in humans and mice are about 400 and 1,000 respectively. In both humans and mice, these genes exist as genomic clusters and are scattered over almost all chromosomes. The difference in the number of genes between the two species is apparently caused by massive inactivation of OR genes in the human lineage and a substantial increase of OR genes in the mouse lineage after the human-mouse divergence. Compared with mammals, fishes have a much smaller number of OR genes. However, the OR gene family in fishes is much more divergent than that in mammals. Fishes have many different groups of genes that are absent in mammals, suggesting that the mammalian OR gene family is characterized by the loss of many group genes that existed in the ancestor of vertebrates and the subsequent expansion of specific groups of genes. Therefore, this gene family apparently changed dynamically depending on the evolutionary lineage and evolved under the birthand-death model of evolution. Study of the evolutionary changes of two gene families for vomeronasal receptors and two gene families for taste receptors, which are structurally similar, but remotely related to OR genes, showed that some of the gene families evolved in the same fashion as the OR gene family. It appears that the number and types of genes in chemosensory receptor gene families have evolved in response to environmental needs, but they are also affected by fortuitous factors.

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Section: Vomeronasal Receptorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is generally believed that the first animals that had separate olfactory and vomeronasal organs were early tetrapods (Eisthen 2004;Baxi et al 2006). However, V2R genes are known to exist in goldfish (Cao et al 1998) and pufferfish (Naito et al 1998).…”

Section: Vomeronasal Receptorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary dynamics of olfactory and other chemosensory receptor genes in vertebrates

2006

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“…While the two systems converge at the level of the amygdala [82], the segregation of the two systems and the extensive functional differences between them have given rise to the traditional view that the MOE detects volatile odorants in the environment while the VNO detects non-volatile pheromones [14]. These functions were seen as being the exclusive domain of each sensory system, however as discussed above it is not only non-volatile compounds that act as pheromones in mammals [6], and recent evidence suggests that while there are functional differences between the two systems, there is also overlap between the two olfactory systems in their roles in pheromone detection. Both the VNO and MOE have recently been shown to respond to certain volatile odours [87] while MOE sensory neurons have also been shown to be activated by involatile peptides which were previously thought to be detected solely through the VNO [78].…”

Section: Pheromone Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some pheromonal signals may also be processed in parallel by the two olfactory systems, as calcium imaging studies with nasal tissue slices have shown that there are sensory neurons that respond to MHC peptides in both the VNO and the MOE [78]. Evidence at both the behavioural and cellular level shows that some pheromones are detected by the MOE and processed by the main olfactory system leading to increasing questioning of the view that pheromonal communication in mammals is the exclusive preserve of the vomeronasal system [6].…”

Section: The Main Olfactory System and Pheromonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As in mammals, these two olfactory systems also have similarly segregated connections to distinct forebrain processing pathways, with separate projections that only appear to converge at the level of the amygdale [6], indicating that the evolution of both the separate chemosensory organs and their distinct projection pathways must have occurred in a common ancestor [68]. The vomeronasal pathway in both amphibians and mammals involves the same nuclei, with the VNO connecting to the AOB, which sends its major projection to the medial amygdala and then on to the hypothalamus, suggesting that this circuit has been conserved in amphibians and mammals [37].…”

Section: Amphibian Olfactory Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The evolution of pheromonal communication

Swaney

Keverne

2009

Behavioural Brain Research

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Small-brained rodents have been the principle focus for pheromonal research and have provided comprehensive insights into the chemosensory mechanisms that underpin pheromonal communication and the hugely important roles that pheromones play in behavioural regulation. However, pheromonal communication does not start or end with the mouse and the rat, and work in amphibians reveals much about the likely evolutionary origins of the chemosensory systems that mediate pheromonal effects. The dual olfactory organs (the main olfactory epithelium and the vomeronasal organ), their receptors and their separate projection pathways appear to have ancient evolutionary origins, appearing in the aquatic ancestors of all tetrapods during the Devonian period and so pre-dating the transition to land. While the vomeronasal organ has long been considered an exclusively pheromonal organ, accumulating evidence indicates that it is not the sole channel for the transduction of pheromonal information and that both olfactory systems have been co-opted for the detection of different pheromone signals over the course of evolution. This has also led to great diversity in the vomeronasal and olfactory receptor families, with enormous levels of gene diversity and inactivation of genes in different species. Finally, the evolution of trichromacy as well as huge increases in social complexity have minimised the role of pheromones in the lives of primates, leading to the total inactivation of the vomeronasal system in catarrhine primates while the brain increased in size and behaviour became emancipated from hormonal regulation.

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Olfaction

2016

The Neuroethology of Predation and Escape

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Is the vomeronasal system really specialized for detecting pheromones?

Cited by 148 publications

References 74 publications

Evolutionary dynamics of olfactory and other chemosensory receptor genes in vertebrates

Evolutionary dynamics of olfactory and other chemosensory receptor genes in vertebrates

The evolution of pheromonal communication

Olfaction

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