Olfactory sensitivity for "green odors" (Aliphatic C6 Alcohols and C6 aldehydes) - A comparative study in male CD-1 mice (Mus musculus) and female spides monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi)

• Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of six male CD-1 mice for “green odors”, a group of eightstructurally related aliphatic C6 alcohols and aldehydes known to exert anxiolytic and stress-reducing effects,was investigated. With all eight stimuli, the animals discriminated concentrations!0.03 ppm(parts per million)from the solvent, and with three of the eight stimuli the best-scoring animals were even able to detect concen-trations !0.03 ppb (parts per billion). Three female spider monkeys tested in parallel were found to detect thesame eight stimuli at concentrations b1 ppm, and with six of the eight stimuli the best-scoring animals detectedconcentrations !0.1 ppm. Analysis of odor structure–activity relationships showed that in both species the typeof functional group attached to the aliphatic C6 backbone of the odorant molecules systematically affected theirolfactory sensitivity whereas the presence/absence of a double bond did not. In the mice, but not in the spidermonkeys, the position of a double bond and the cis/trans-configuration of the odorant molecules also had a sys-tematic effect on detectability of the “green odors”. A comparison of the detection thresholds between the twospecies tested here and those obtained in human subjects suggests that the number of functional olfactory recep-tor genes is a poor predictor of a species' olfactory sensitivity for “green odors”.

Nyckelord

Olfactory detection thresholds

Green odors

Mouse

Spider monkey

Odor structure-activity relationships

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