Meeting Abstract

P2.162  Monday, Jan. 5  Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Does Not Enhance Male Detection of Female Pheromones in Xenopus tropicalis CHANTAROJWONG, T.M.*; PROPPER, C.R.; Northern Arizona University ; Northern Arizona University thasanee.chantarojwong@albeyo.net

Amphibians produce pheromones which are known to affect communication and courtship behavior. There are several examples of courtship-related pheromonal communication occurring in urodele species and very few examples of pheromone communication in anurans. We investigated the frog, Xenopus tropicalis, to further identify the capacity for pheromonal communication and to determine whether treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) increases male sensitivity to pheromones. Previous studies in our lab have found that males spent a significant amount of time in the female arm of a y-maze than the control arm (P=0.01). GnRH is a neuro-hormone that is instrumental in several reproductive physiological processes and is known to impact both reproductive behavior and response to odorants. In this study, we investigated the impact of injected GnRH on pheromone detection in males. Males were injected intraperitoneally either with 0 ug or 10 ug GnRH in Ringers. Animals were then placed in a Y-maze and given the choice of an arm containing water from female conspecifics or control water. Both GnRH and amphibian Ringers injected males combined spent more time in the producer arm than in the control arm (P=.0395). However, males injected with GnRH did not spend a significantly more time in the producer arm than males injected with amphibian ringers (P=.819). We conclude that 10 ug GnRH does not have a significant impact on males sensitivity to female pheromones; however, we confirmed that female anurans also produce pheromones.