Sex Pheromone Named After A 'Pride And Prejudice' Character

Scientists named a pheromone after Darcy, the attractive hero in Jane Austen’s classic "Pride and Prejudice." The sex pheromone called darcin appears to be potential in attracting mates’ brains to trigger courtship in mice models.

The team of researchers from the University of Liverpool carried out a study on more than 450 captive-bred adult female house mice and found that the unusual protein present in male mice’s urine attracted females.

Several species make use of pheromones to not only communicate information about the location but also for the sexual and social status of potential partners. The study, published in Nature, reported that darcin elicits a complex and variable behavior repertoire which included attraction, ultrasonic vocalization alongside scent marking.

“Contact with darcin consistently doubled the time spent near a male's scent. Touching darcin with the nose also made females learn that particular male's odor, subsequently tripling the time spent near to the airborne scent of that individual male but showing no attraction to other males," Science Daily quoted the study’s lead researcher Jane Hurst.

Darcin, just like other pheromones seen in animals is yet to be identified in human beings. It is expected that, if a human pheromone gets identified, it can do wonders in the world of dating, mentioned Inverse.

In spite of having tiny brains and simple physiology, the sex lives of mice remain complicated. Similar to human beings, they interpret behavior cues and biological scents for mating. Darcin, initially identified by scientists a decade ago, has been found to play a crucial role in the process.

When a male mice pee, darcin gets released. This not only marks a territory but also signals mating time with potential partners. The female mice sniff that, uses the scent to identify the male mice and, then, decides whether or not to mate with him. The study also mentioned that the process in which the females sniff the pheromone isn’t the same in human beings.

The study’s co-author Ebru Demir told Inverse that mice possess two noses -- one for processing normal scents and the second one for sex pheromones. Their second nose is known as ‘vomernasal nose,’ which has evolved specifically to process pheromones including darcin.