Chemical investigations of estrus-related volatile compounds from bovine and horse body fluids /
In many mammalian species, estrous females give off characteristic odors that attract males and initiate courtship. Three experiments were conducted in cows and horses to investigate whether the estrous secretions contain special compounds that may cause sexual attraction. In Experiment 1, bovine v...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1996.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=743273531&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | In many mammalian species, estrous females give off characteristic odors that attract males and initiate courtship. Three experiments were conducted in cows and horses to investigate whether the estrous secretions contain special compounds that may cause sexual attraction. In Experiment 1, bovine vaginal secretions were examined by headspace gas chromatography. A peak with a retention time of 2.7 min was identified as acetaldehyde. This compound exhibited low concentration at diestrus, but showed an increase followed by a decrease just before estrus. Another unidentified compound with a retention time of 27 min was unique to pro-estrus. It only appeared at pro-estrus, but was absent at any other time of the cycle. In Experiment 2, equine urine was analyzed by headspace gas chromatography. The profiles of estrous urine samples were characterized by the presence of a unique peak that did not occur in diestrous samples. Numerous constituents exhibited endocrine dependence: at estrus, 7 peaks increased their areas, whereas 4 peaks decreased their sizes. The relative ratios (normalized peak areas)'tof several peaks changed significantly across the estrous cycle: 9 peaks increased and 6 peaks decreased their ratios at estrus. In Experiment 3, Bovine milk volatiles were analyzed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Twenty-five compounds, including esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, fatty acids, and lactones, were tentatively identified. While no qualitative differences were found among different sample types (diestrus, pro-estrus, and estrus), 36 components exhibited significant fluctuations across the cycle. Multivariate discriminant analysis indicated that only 15 peaks from the whole profile were needed to reveal the differences among the three sample types. The discriminant function based on the 15 compounds could classify all the samples with an accuracy of 97.86%. The 15 selected peaks may represent important compounds that control the odor quality of different milk samples. Canonical analysis indicated that the three different sample types were clearly separated from one another in 2- dimensional space. Since the estrous secretions in these two species have been shown to elicit sexual behavior in males, the unique peaks, and/or the peaks increased concentrations at estrus may represent important chemo-signals that males use for estrus detection. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Veterinary Anatomy". |
| Physical Description: | x, 102 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |