Chemical Studies of the Primer Mouse Pheromones

Abstract

Several primer pheromone effects in laboratory mice are now well known. These include the Whitten, Bruce, Vandenbergh, and Lee-Boot effects. The first three phenomena are associated with the effect of male mouse urine on females. In the Whitten effect, male urine promotes a regular four to five day estrous cycle in female mice (Whitten, 1956, 1958; Marsden and Bronson, 1964). In the Bruce effect, urine from a “strange” male mouse will cause failure of implantation and pregnancy in a female recently mated with another male (Bruce, 1960; Bruce and Parrott, 1960; Parkes and Bruce, 1962; Dominic, 1966). The Vandenbergh effect concerns the acceleration in the onset of puberty and first estrus in prepubertal female mice exposed to urine of males (Vandenbergh, 1967, 1969; Colby and Vandenbergh, 1974). The Lee-Boot effect is a phenomenon associated with confined groups of female mice, in which females become anestrous or develop spontaneous pseudopregnancies (reviewed by Parkes and Bruce, 1961).