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Olfactory sensitivity for six amino acids: a comparative study in CD-1 mice and spider monkeys

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Abstract

Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of five CD-1 mice for the l- and d-forms of cysteine, methionine, and proline was investigated. With all six stimuli, the animals discriminated concentrations ≤0.1 ppm (parts per million) from the odorless solvent, and with three of the six stimuli the best-scoring animals were even able to detect concentrations <0.1 ppb (parts per billion). Three spider monkeys tested in parallel were found to detect the same six stimuli at concentrations <1 ppm, and with four of the six stimuli the best-scoring animals detected concentrations ≤1 ppb. Both CD-1 mice and spider monkeys displayed a higher olfactory sensitivity with the l- and d-forms of cysteine and methionine than with the prolines, suggesting an important role of the sulfur-containing functional groups for detectability. Accordingly, the across-odorant patterns of detection thresholds obtained with mice and spider monkeys showed a significant positive correlation. A comparison of the detection thresholds between the two species tested here and those obtained in human subjects suggests that neither the number of functional olfactory receptor genes nor the absolute or the relative size of the olfactory bulbs reliably predicts a species’ olfactory sensitivity for amino acids.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT Mexico) to Laura Teresa Hernandez Salazar (J-51435-IV) is gratefully acknowledged.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFM Biology, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden

    Helena Wallén, Ida Engström & Matthias Laska

  2. Instituto de Neuro-Etologia, Universidad Veracruzana, 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Laura Teresa Hernandez Salazar

Authors
  1. Helena Wallén
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  2. Ida Engström
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  3. Laura Teresa Hernandez Salazar
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  4. Matthias Laska
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Correspondence to Matthias Laska.

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Wallén, H., Engström, I., Hernandez Salazar, L.T. et al. Olfactory sensitivity for six amino acids: a comparative study in CD-1 mice and spider monkeys. Amino Acids 42, 1475–1485 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-011-0951-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-011-0951-x

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