Mate choice recognition

Barnard, C. J. and Fitzsimmons, J. (1988). Kin recognition and mate choice in mice the effects of kinship, familiarity and social interference on intersexual interaction. Ani-mal Behaviour 36,1078-1090. 

It has been known for many decades that odors influence animal behavior, including foraging, predator avoidance, alarm response, social dominance, cohort recognition, and courtship. Darwin (1871) initially proposed chemical signals as a key mechanism in mate choice by which sexual selection is promoted. However, it was not until the discovery of the silkworm moth pheromone bombykol by Butenandt et al. (1959)... 

Marco, A., Kiesecker, J. M., Chivers, D. P., and Blaustein, A. R., 1998, Sex recognition and mate choice by male western toads, Bufo boreas, Anim. Behav. 55 1631-1635. 

In both the mate choice studies (where mating is prevented) and the habituation-dishabituation test, investigation of an odour source is measured as the behavioural response. However, little attention is usually paid to the functional meaning of investigation in these contexts. We believe that investigation is of limited value in studies of individual recognition, because it is not a specific functional response. 

Although the mechanism for HLA-based mate choice in humans is not known, MHC-based mate choice preferences in rodents are olfactory mediated (reviewed in Alberts Ober, 1993). In humans, evidence for MHC-based olfactory recognition has recently been presented by Wedekind and colleagues (Wedekind et. al., 1995, 1997). Despite the methodological limitations of these studies (Hedrick and Loeschcke, 1996), the results are consistent with the data from rodent studies and suggest that humans may indeed use olfactory cues to discriminate between persons similar and dissimilar in the MHC. This premise has been bolstered recently by the identification of a family of olfactory receptor genes (OLF) that map within the human MHC (Fan et al., 1996), but additional studies are needed to determine whether preferences for mates with dissimilar HLA haplotypes in the Hutterites are indeed mediated by olfactory cues. 

Olfactory signals in mammals provide information which can be used for mate choice, parent-offspring and kin recognition (Brown, 1979 Brown Macdonald, 1985). Olfactory cues found in the urine of mice and rats have been frequently associated with... 

In general, fluorine should prove practically isosteric with hydrogen as far as substrate-enzyme and agonist-receptor recognition is concerned. Huorinated pheromones may even serve to confuse insects and disrupt their mating. Anyway, we have no choice. There is no other element that can pose as hydrogen except fluorine. Therefore let us do our best to exploit cunningly the similarities and dissimilarities of these unlike twins. ... 

However, chemical communication within the same species is most developed in animals, especially at the time of reproduction. Reproduction conditions the capacity of species to settle in an environment and colonize it. In animals, scents have a generally determinant role in the recognition, detection (sometimes at long distance) and choice of a sexual partners. To find soul mates, insects have developed amazing olfactory abilities. This is the case with many night-flying moths that are capable of detecting a sexual... 

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