| Popis: |
The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is one of only two known canids exhibiting induced ovulation, a phenomenon that may be controlled by semiochemicals. This study employed headspace solid-phase microextraction with GC–MS coupled with the recursive use of Agilent’s MassHunter Workstation and Mass Profiler Professional software to investigate the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from monthly urine samples of 11 maned wolves. The goals were to find compounds that differ between males and females as a first step toward semiochemical discovery and to create a list of compounds found commonly across samples to form the basis of a control mixture for use in behavioral bioassays. Ten compounds were found to differ significantly between males and females (p 3.0): ψ-diosphenol, 1,3-di-tert-butylbenzene, and 2,4-dimethyl-1-heptene were respectively 3000, 600, and 85 times more abundant in males than females. Butanoic acid was unique to female maned wolves and nonanoic acid was 19 times more abundant in females than males. Twenty-five compounds were identified in >98 % of the samples. Several of these compounds have been previously identified in maned wolf urine and some have been reported as semiochemicals in other mammal species. The analysis demonstrates that HS–SPME–GC–MS combined with automated data processing can successfully shorten the list of compounds that require manual inspection and identification. The use of a recursive software workflow largely automates the search for maned wolf candidate semiochemicals, enabling an intense manual focus on compounds of interest. |
