Ultra-high olfactory sensitivity for the human sperm-attractant aromaticaldehyde bourgeonal in CD-1 mice

• Recent studies have shown that certain aromatic aldehydes are ligands for olfactory receptors expressedin mammalian sperm cells and induce sperm chemotaxis. Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactorysensitivity of five CD-1 mice for seven aromatic aldehydes was investigated. With all seven stimuli, themice discriminated concentrations as low as 0.01 ppm (parts per million) from the solvent, and withbourgeonal the animals even detected concentrations as low as 0.1 ppq (parts per quadrillion) whichconstitutes the lowest olfactory detection threshold value reported in this species so far. The presence ofa tertiary butyl group in para-position (relative to the functional aldehyde group) combined with a lack ofan additional alkyl group next to the functional aldehyde group may be responsible for the extraordinarysensitivity of the mice for bourgeonal.

Keyword

Olfactory sensitivity

Detection thresholds

Aromatic aldehydes

Bourgeonal

Micem Sperm-attractant odorants

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)