啮齿类动物的社会行为是由信息素驱动的，后者向其他个体发出有关年龄、性别和生理信息的信号。在这项研究中，Stephen Liberles及同事识别出了由在性成熟前的幼鼠产生的一种新型信息素(ESP22)。ESP22是通过眼泪释放的，激发“梨鼻器”中的神经元，抑制成年雄性针对任何表达这种信号的动物的交配行为。 因此，ESP22似乎是性不成熟的一个标志，帮助控制成年小鼠的性行为。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Nature doi:10.1038/nature12579
A juvenile mouse pheromone inhibits sexual behaviour through the vomeronasal system
David M. Ferrero,Lisa M. Moeller,Takuya Osakada,Nao Horio,Qian Li,Dheeraj S. Roy,Annika Cichy,Marc Spehr,Kazushige Touhara& Stephen D. Liberles
Animals display a repertoire of different social behaviours. Appropriate behavioural responses depend on sensory input received during social interactions. In mice, social behaviour is driven by pheromones, chemical signals that encode information related to age, sex and physiological state1. However, although mice show different social behaviours towards adults, juveniles and neonates, sensory cues that enable specific recognition of juvenile mice are unknown. Here we describe a juvenile pheromone produced by young mice before puberty, termed exocrine-gland secreting peptide 22 (ESP22). ESP22 is secreted from the lacrimal gland and released into tears of 2- to 3-week-old mice. Upon detection, ESP22 activates high-affinity sensory neurons in the vomeronasal organ, and downstream limbic neurons in the medial amygdala. Recombinant ESP22, painted on mice, exerts a powerful inhibitory effect on adult male mating behaviour, which is abolished in knockout mice lacking TRPC2, a key signalling component of the vomeronasal organ2, 3. Furthermore, knockout of TRPC2 or loss of ESP22 production results in increased sexual behaviour of adult males towards juveniles, and sexual responses towards ESP22-deficient juveniles are suppressed by ESP22 painting. Thus, we describe a pheromone of sexually immature mice that controls an innate social behaviour, a response pathway through the accessory olfactory system and a new role for vomeronasal organ signalling in inhibiting sexual behaviour towards young. These findings provide a molecular framework for understanding how a sensory system can regulate behaviour.
