Buck odor production in the cornual gland of the male goat, Capra hircus– Validation with histoarchitecture, volatile and proteomic analysis

ABSTRACT

In many animals, glandular secretions or pheromones that possess biological moieties contain messages encoded by the intrinsic smell. In male goats, the cornual gland (a sebaceous gland), may synthesize and excrete relevant chemical components that are responsible for the ‘buck effect’. To test this, cornual glands from freshly-slaughtered male goats (N=6) were subjected to histoarchitecture analysis, to infer about the structural alignment, to the GC–MS analysis for volatile compounds and to SDS–PAGE for protein profiling followed by MALDI-TOF to characterize specific protein bands. The gland possesses sebum, vacuoles and hair follicles inferring its capability to synthesize and extrude the scent. We found 14 volatiles in GC–MS analysis, in which 1-octadecanol might be a putative pheromone of buck odor. We identified seven different proteins in SDS-PAGE. Two proteins, 28 and 33 kDa, were highly matched with DNA mismatch repair protein and Abietadiene synthase, respectively, as inferred from MALDI-TOF. Conclusively, the volatiles identified in the cornual gland suggest that the structural microelements of the gland may synthesize (sebum and vacuoles) and release the key volatiles through the hair follicles. The volatile(s) thus produced in male goats either solely or synergistically may confer the buck odor.