Partial isolation of a pheromone accelerating puberty in female mice.

The sexual development of female mice is accelerated by exposure to an adult male or to male urine. The component of the urine responsible for this effect is androgen-dependent, heat labile, nondialysable, precipitatable with ammonium sulphate, and is not extractable in ether. These results indicate that the pheromone causing accelerated sexual development is associated with a protein component of male urine. Tests of the active fraction after digestion with proteolytic enzymes suggest that the pheromone may be a portion of a protein or a substance bound to a protein.