Major urinary proteins

One of the best-studied carrier molecules is produced as a primary excretory constituent of the adult male mouse, known from its consistent high concentration as the major urinary protein (MUP). The basic 3-D structure of the protein was initially obtained from a monoclinic crystal of recombinant protein (MUP-I), constructed by induction in a bacterial expression system and purified to homogeneity (Kuser, 1990). A wild type version of MUP finally yielded to NMR analysis a clone of the r-isoform (162 residues) was labelled and compared with the crystal-structure (Lucke et al., 1990). Two views of the molecule... 

Held W., Gallagher J.F., Hohman C.M., Kuhn N.J., et al. (1987). Identification and characterization of functional genes encoding the mouse major urinary proteins. Mol Cell Biol 10, 3705-3712. 

Kuser R, Krauchenco S., Fangel A. and Polikarpov T. (1999). Crystallization and preliminary diffraction studies of a recombinant major urinary protein. Acta Crystallogr (D) 55, 1340-1341. 

Lucke C., Franzoni L., Abbate F., Lohr F., et al. (1999). Solution structure of a recombinant mouse major urinary protein. Eur J Biochem 266, 1210-1218. 

Novotny M., Ma W., Wiesler D. and Zidek L. (1999). Positive identification of the puberty-accelerating pheromone of the house mouse the volatile ligands associating with the major urinary protein. Proc Roy Soc Lond (B) 266, 2017-2022. 

Robertson D., Benyon R.L. and Evershed R. (1993). Extraction, characterization and binding analysis of two pheromonally active ligands associated with major urinary proteins of house mouse (Mus musculus). J Chem Ecol 19, 1405-1416. 

Shaw P., Held W. and Hastie N. (1983). The gene family for major urinary proteins, expression in several secretory tissues of the mouse. Cell 32, 755-761. 

Utsumi M., Ohno K., Kawasaki Y., Tamura M., et al. (1999). Expression of major urinary protein genes in the nasal glands associated with general olfaction. J Neurobiol 39, 227-236. 

Zidek L., Stone M., Lato S., Pagel M., et al. (1999). NMR-mapping of the recombi mouse major urinary protein-I binding site occupied by the pheromone 2-sec-bi 4,5-dihydrothiazole. Biochem 38, 9850-9861. 

Armstrong, S. D., Robertson, D. H. L., Cheetham, S. A., Hurst, J. L. and Beynon, R. J. (2005) Structural and functional differences in isoforms of mouse major urinary proteins a male-specific protein that preferentially binds a male pheromone. Biochem. J. 391, 343-350. 

Bennett, K. L., Lalley, P. A., Barth, R. K. and Hastie, N. D. (1982) Mapping the structural genes coding for the major urinary proteins in the mouse combined use of recombinant inbred strains and somatic cell hybrids. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 1220-4. 

Beynon, R. J. and Hurst, J. L. (2003) Multiple roles of major urinary proteins in the house mouse, Mus domesticus. Biochem. Soc. Trans. 31, 142-6. 

Bishop, J. O., Clark, A. J., Qissold, P. M., Hainey, S. and Francke, U. (1982) Two main groups of mouse major urinary protein genes, both largely located on chromosome 4. EMBO J. 1,615-20. 

Payne, C. E., Malone, N., Humphries, R. E., Bradbrook, C., Veggerby, C., Beynon, R. J. and Hurst, J. L. (2001). Heterogeneity of major urinary proteins in house mice population and sex differences. In A. Marchelewska-Koj, D. Muller-Schwarze and J. Lepri (Eds.), Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 9, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 233-240. 

Shahan, K., Denaro, M., Gilmartin, M., Shi, Y. and Derman, E. (1987) Expression of six mouse major urinary protein genes in the mammary, parotid,sublingual, submaxillary, and lachrymal glands and in the liver. Mol. Cell. Biol. 7, 1947-1954. 

Stopkova, R., Stopka, P., Janotova, K. and Jedelsky, P. L. (2007) Species-specific expression of major urinary proteins in the house mice (Mus musculus musculus and Mus musculus domesticus). J Chem Ecol 33, 861-9. 

Timm, D. E., Baker, L. J., Mueller, H., Zidek, L. and Novotny, M. V. (2001) Structural basis of pheromone binding to mouse major urinary protein (MUP-I). Protein Sci. 10, 997-1004. 

The Biological Function of Cauxin, a Major Urinary Protein of the Domestic Cat (Felis catus)... 

Cavaggioni, A. and Mucignat-Caretta, C. (2000) Major urinary proteins, CX2u-globulins and aphro-disin. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1482, 218-228. 

Hurst, J.L., Payne, C.E., Nevison, C.M., Marie, A.D., Humphries, R.E., Robertson, D.H., Cavag-gioni, A. and Beynon, R.J. (2001) Individual recognition in mice mediated by major urinary proteins. Nature 414, 631-634. 

Miyazaki, M., Yamashita, T., Suzuki, Y., Soeta, S., Taira, H. and Suzuki, A. (2006b) A major urinary protein of the domestic cat regulates the production of felinine, a putative pheromone precursor. Chem. Biol. 13, 1071-1079. 

A major effort in contemporary olfactory research has focused upon determining the genetic basis of odours of individuality in mice with both major urinary proteins (MUPs) and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) believed to provide a contribution to discriminable individual differences (Singer, Beauchamp and Yamazaki 1997 Hurst and Beynon 2004). Many of these studies utilized instrumental conditioning tasks in which the animals were rewarded for learning to discriminate between odours. While these experiments demonstrate what an animal... 

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