Skip to main content

Umbrella menu

  • SfN.org
  • eNeuro
  • The Journal of Neuroscience
  • Neuronline
  • BrainFacts.org

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Video Archive
    • Collections
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Editorial Board
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Permissions
    • Contact Us
    • Feedback
  • SfN.org
  • eNeuro
  • The Journal of Neuroscience
  • Neuronline
  • BrainFacts.org

User menu

  • Log in
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log in
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Video Archive
    • Collections
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Editorial Board
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Permissions
    • Contact Us
    • Feedback
PreviousNext
Viewpoints

Excreted Steroids in Vertebrate Social Communication

Wayne I. Doyle and Julian P. Meeks
Journal of Neuroscience 4 April 2018, 38 (14) 3377-3387; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2488-17.2018
Wayne I. Doyle
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9111
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Julian P. Meeks
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9111
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Julian P. Meeks
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Steroids play vital roles in animal physiology across species, and the production of specific steroids is associated with particular internal biological functions. The internal functions of steroids are, in most cases, quite clear. However, an important feature of many steroids (their chemical stability) allows these molecules to play secondary, external roles as chemical messengers after their excretion via urine, feces, or other shed substances. The presence of steroids in animal excretions has long been appreciated, but their capacity to serve as chemosignals has not received as much attention. In theory, the blend of steroids excreted by an animal contains a readout of its own biological state. Initial mechanistic evidence for external steroid chemosensation arose from studies of many species of fish. In sea lampreys and ray-finned fishes, bile salts were identified as potent olfactory cues and later found to serve as pheromones. Recently, we and others have discovered that neurons in amphibian and mammalian olfactory systems are also highly sensitive to excreted glucocorticoids, sex steroids, and bile acids, and some of these molecules have been confirmed as mammalian pheromones. Steroid chemosensation in olfactory systems, unlike steroid detection in most tissues, is performed by plasma membrane receptors, but the details remain largely unclear. In this review, we present a broad view of steroid detection by vertebrate olfactory systems, focusing on recent research in fishes, amphibians, and mammals. We review confirmed and hypothesized mechanisms of steroid chemosensation in each group and discuss potential impacts on vertebrate social communication.

  • vertebrate
  • olfaction
  • chemosensation
  • steroid
  • bile acid
  • pheromone
View Full Text

Member Log In

Sign in with your SFN login

If you have an SfN.org account and DO NOT know
your username and/or password

If you DO NOT have an SfN membership

Log in through your institution

If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

Pay Per Article - You may access this article (from the computer you are currently using) for 1 day for US$35.00

Regain Access - You can regain access to a recent Pay per Article purchase if your access period has not yet expired.

Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 38 (14)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 38, Issue 14
4 Apr 2018
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
  • Ed Board (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Excreted Steroids in Vertebrate Social Communication
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Excreted Steroids in Vertebrate Social Communication
Wayne I. Doyle, Julian P. Meeks
Journal of Neuroscience 4 April 2018, 38 (14) 3377-3387; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2488-17.2018

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article

Share
Excreted Steroids in Vertebrate Social Communication
Wayne I. Doyle, Julian P. Meeks
Journal of Neuroscience 4 April 2018, 38 (14) 3377-3387; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2488-17.2018
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • vertebrate
  • olfaction
  • chemosensation
  • steroid
  • bile acid
  • pheromone

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • The Axon Initial Segment: An Updated Viewpoint
  • Functional Heterogeneity within Rat Orbitofrontal Cortex in Reward Learning and Decision Making
Show more Viewpoints
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Video Archive
  • Collections

For Authors

  • Information for Authors

About

  • Overview
  • Editorial Board
  • Subscriptions
  • For the Media
  • Permissions
  • Contact Us
  • Feedback
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2018 by the Society for Neuroscience.

JNeurosci   Print ISSN: 0270-6474   Online ISSN: 1529-2401