TY  - EJOU
AU  - ZHANG, TIANXIANG 
AU  - ZHANG, MEISHAN 
AU  - SHI, MINGHUI 
AU  - JIN, WEIJIANG 
AU  - ZHANG, SHUMIAO 
AU  - FAN, MENGYUAN 
AU  - LI, YIMENG 
AU  - MENG, YUPING 
AU  - TIAN, XUELIN 
AU  - LIU, SHUQIANG 
AU  - HU, DEFU 

TI  - Musk secretion in muskrats (<i>Ondatra zibethicus L</i>.): association with lipid and cholesterol metabolism-related pathways
T2  - BIOCELL

PY  - 2021
VL  - 45
IS  - 2
SN  - 1667-5746

AB  - Male muskrats (<i>Ondatra zibethicus</i> L.) secrete musk from their scent glands during musk secretion season.
Musk plays an important role as a communication pheromone during the breeding season. In this study, gas
chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to analyze the main components of musk. The GC–MS
results after methyl esterification showed that 71.55% of the musk is composed of fatty acids. The other components
of muskrat musk include cholesterol (9.31%) and other organics. Transcriptome comparison between musk secretion
and non-secretion seasons showed significant changes in the scent glands for 53 genes involved in fatty acid and
cholesterol synthesis and metabolism regulatory pathways, which include fatty acid biosynthesis, elongation, and
metabolism; steroid biosynthesis; steroid hormone biosynthesis pathways. A reverse transcription–polymerase chain
reaction analysis confirmed these detected changes. Overall, our results indicated that lipid synthesis and metabolism
play important roles in musk compound synthesis by providing energy for musk production, and the produced musk
provides a mechanism for male muskrats to communicate with females during the breeding season.
KW  - Muskrat
KW  -  Scent gland
KW  -  RNA-seq
KW  -  Lipid
KW  -  Cholesterol

DO  - 10.32604/biocell.2021.010277