The genetics of pheromonally mediated intermale aggression in mice: current status and prospects of the model

A genetic model of pheromonally mediated aggression in laboratory male mice, which has been developed over the past decade, is reviewed and integrated with recent developments in the neurobiology of olfaction and the chemistry of pheromones in Mus musculus. Experimental data strongly support the possibility of enzymatic activation of aggression promoting and inhibiting pheromones by beta-glucuronidase (EC 3.2.1.31). These findings introduce important questions as to the involvement of beta-GLU genes (Gus and Eg on chromosomes 5 and 8, respectively) in the determination of urine odor profiling. The discovery of two neuroanatomically, and functionally distinct, olfactory structures in 1975 led the way for direct selection of olfactory bulb relay neurons, medial amygdala nucleus neurons and TIDA-neurons for analysis of the genetic mechanisms involved in pheromonal action on aggressive and other olfactory mediated social behaviors in rodents.