Chemical signals social status

Hurst, J. L., Beynon, R. J., Humphries, R. E., Malone, N., Nevison, C. M., Payne, C. E., Robertson, D. H. L. and Veggerby, C. (2001). Information in scent signals of competitive social status the interface between behaviour and chemistry. In A. Marchelewska-Koj, D. Muller-Schwarze and J. Lepri (Eds.), Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 9, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 43-50. 

Male mice communicate their gender and social status by means of chemical signals excreted in urine. These substances usually attract adult females and repel adult male mice. 

Mice are sensitive to several chemical signals excreted by conspecifics. Most of these signals are contained in urine, which is readily emitted during appropriate circumstances. Mice emit urine during social encounters with other mice and show different patterns of urination in the presence of male or female conspecifics (Reynolds, 1971). They also mark the boundaries of their territory with urine (Harrington, 1976), In this way they communicate their social status and their reproductive condition (Halpem, 1987),... 

Submissive status is paralleled by a lowering in gonadotropin titers (Bronson, 1973). A change in social status from dominant to subordinate induced a modification in the aggression-promoting properties of urinary chemical signals (Sandnabba, 1986). On the other hand, testosterone replacement in castrated mice restores the aversive effects of male urine on other males in a dose-dependent manner as the dose of testosterone in donor mice increases, the test mice spend less time and are less active in the soiled compartment (Jones Nowell, 1974b). 

Information about sex, reproductive condition and social status is all coded in chemical messages secreted or excreted by members of various species (see contributions in the three previous publications in this series) In addition to their information content, chemicals released by animals also affect physiological responses, and the vomeronasal organ seems to be particularly involved in reception of these chemical signals (pheromones). Many pheromonal effects depend on an intact vomeronasal system (see Table 1) they do not occur or are much reduced if the vomeronasal system of the recipient animal is rendered non-functional. Indeed, the organ has been implicated in the control of reproduction, especially in the onset of sexual... 

Dominant fishes Ictalurus natalis also use chemical signals to maintain their social status (90). 

---