Heritability of kinship pheromone in the beaver: How is information about relatedness coded?

Authors

Lixing Sun, Central Washington UniversityFollow
Dietland Muller-Schwarze, SUNY Syracuse

Department or Administrative Unit

Biological Sciences

Document Type

Article

Author Copyright

Copyright © 2004 Acta Zoologica Sinica

Publication Date

2004

Journal

Acta Zoologica Sinica

Abstract

We attempted to estimate the narrow-sense heritability of single compounds and whole profile of the anal gland secretion (AGS) with the regression method using several sets of relatives in the beaver (Castor canadensis). We used GC (gas chromatography) and GC-MS (mass spectrometry) to characterize and quantify chemical compounds in beaver AGS. We found that the heritability of single compounds seemed to be low, whereas the heritability of AGS profile appeared to be moderate. We conclude that many compounds might be involved in the coding of genetic relatedness, which was through a combination of analog and digital coding using many compounds.

Comments

This article was originally published in the journal Acta Zoologica Sinica.

Recommended Citation

Sun, L. & Muller-Schwarze, D. (2004). Heritability of kinship pheromone in the beaver: How is information about relatedness coded? Acta Zoologica Sinica, 50(4), 504-510.