Male and female mice scent mark during social communication regardless of sexual motivation or partner identity.
The 3 matches · 2 of them tie a paragraph to a whole file without given lines: weak matches, whose lines are not tinted
- [1] § STAR★METHODS › METHOD DETAILS › Odor-motivated unidirectional scent marking assay ↔ smufMakeEum.m, the whole file · a weak match · score 0.82 · bottom cut, urine detection, green channels, overlay, cameras, tracking · Report a mismatch
- [2] § STAR★METHODS › METHOD DETAILS › Odor-motivated unidirectional scent marking assay ↔ smufVideoToPixels.m, lines 30 to 82 · score 0.80 · bottom cut, urine detection, green channels, overlay, video, tracking · Report a mismatch
- [3] § STAR★METHODS › METHOD DETAILS › Conspecific-motivated bidirectional scent marking assay ↔ smufMakeEum.m, the whole file · a weak match · score 0.65 · green channel, urine spot, cropped, camera, cage, thresholding · Report a mismatch
Paper
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The authors' code
MATLAB · 112 lines · 5 KB · GPL-3.0 · 2 matches
- function [eum] = smufMakeEum( filepath, mouseNum, cageMask )
- %% smufMakeEum: function to read in SMUF video frame and create End Urine Map (EUM)
- %
- % This function allows selection of ROIs to exclude from analysis (i.e. stimulus marks), since we do not spectrally or
- % otherwise separate tonic water or semale stimuli. It is possible to build a setup to always make these in the same place, and
- % thus automate this step, but it is also useful to have flexibility in where to pipette stimuli when an animal is moving
- % around. Running only this step on all videos first allows the more time-consuming urine detection across
- % all frames to be done unsupervised in batches.
- %
- % Author: Jason Keller
- % Date: June 2018
- %
- % please cite: Keller, Stowers et al, Nature Neuroscience, 2018
- %
- % INPUT:
- % [filepath]
- % [mouseNum]
- %
- % OUTPUT:
- % [eum] - mask with final urine spots to be counted, cropped; an overlay image is saved for simple quality control check
- %
- %% read video % select negative threshold to track mouse
- filename = [filepath, mouseNum, '.mp4']; %I used MP4 but any file format that VideoReader can handle is acceptable
- display(['making EUM, mouse ' mouseNum]);
- smufObj = VideoReader(filename);
- nFrames = smufObj.NumberOfFrames;
- % NOTE: parameters below must be updated in both "smufMakeEum" and "smufVideoToPixels"
- topCut = 5; %hard code to cut off black border for cropped video output (use makeMask.jpg to estimate)
- bottomCut = 350;
- leftCut = 24;
- rightCut = 590;
- vidHeight = bottomCut-topCut; %smufObj.Height;
- vidWidth = rightCut-leftCut; %smufObj.Width;
- % nTotalPixels = vidHeight*vidWidth;
- % frameRate = smufObj.FrameRate; %in fps;
- numFramesAvg = 3; %number of frames to avg; more is better for noise, less is better to capture last bit of urine
- %thresh parameters, depends on lighting and camera conditions:
- % NOTE: this should be updated to the same value both here and in smufVideoToPixels.m when changing conditions
- thresh = 175; %found using threshToolMod (needs uint8 input);
- %% Preallocate the movie matrix & read frames
- fullMov = zeros(vidHeight,vidWidth,3,numFramesAvg,'uint8'); %need full RGB saved to output results on top
- grMov = zeros(vidHeight,vidWidth,numFramesAvg,'uint8'); %use green + red channels since they have most information
- gPercent = 0.5; %red seems to counterbalance mouse shadow (light in green channel, dark in red channel)
- rPercent = 1 - gPercent;
- for k = 1:numFramesAvg %use last 3 frames for EUM; read one frame at a time:
- frameNum = nFrames-numFramesAvg+k;
- tempS = read(smufObj,frameNum);
- fullMov(:,:,:,k) = tempS(topCut:bottomCut-1, leftCut:rightCut-1,:); %read method returns a H-by-W-by-B-by-F matrix, video,where H is the image frame height, W isthe image frame width, B is the number of bandsin the image (for example, 3 for RGB), and F isthe number of frames read
- grMov(:,:,k) = squeeze(fullMov(:,:,1,k)*rPercent + fullMov(:,:,2,k)*gPercent);
- grMov(:,:,k) = imsharpen(grMov(:,:,k),'Radius',20,'Amount',3, 'Threshold', 0); %sharpen to accentuate urine edges; parameters found manually
- end
- % manually select exclusion pixels (e.g. stimulus, mouse, reflections)
- lastFrames = uint8(mean(grMov,numFramesAvg)); %use mean over time instead of max projection
- %% select exclusion spots
- hFig = figure;
- hIm = imagesc(lastFrames);
- axis off;
- set(gcf, 'Position', get(0,'Screensize')); % Maximize figure
- hDoneControl = uicontrol(hFig, 'Style', 'pushbutton', 'String', 'DONE',... %make button to press when done
- 'Callback', @doneCallback, 'Position', [50 50 100 20]); %#ok<NASGU>
- % User selects stimulus ROIs with mouse (or any other exclusion pixels):
- set(hFig, 'Name','Use mouse to circle urine exclusion areas, press DONE when finished');
- exitStim = false;
- exclude = logical(zeros(vidHeight,vidWidth)); %#ok<LOGL>
- while(~exitStim)
- hStimRoi = imfreehand(gca);
- exclude = exclude | createMask(hStimRoi,hIm); %OR the masks to combine
- end
- close(hFig);
- pause on; pause(0.1); pause off; %allow figure to close
- %% thresholding:
- % thresh = threshToolMod(lastFrames) %can uncomment here when first setting up
- BW = im2bw(lastFrames, thresh/255);
- eum = BW & cageMask(topCut:bottomCut-1, leftCut:rightCut-1) &~exclude;
- %% make overlay image for QC:
- urineDot = uint8([255 255 0]);
- overlay = zeros(vidHeight,vidWidth,'uint8');
- tempR = fullMov(:,:,1,end); %pull out current frame to allow linear indexing
- tempG = fullMov(:,:,2,end);
- tempB = fullMov(:,:,3,end);
- tempR(eum) = repmat(urineDot(1), length(find(eum)), 1); %set movie pixels for QC
- tempG(eum) = repmat(urineDot(2), length(find(eum)), 1);
- tempB(eum) = repmat(urineDot(3), length(find(eum)), 1);
- overlay(:,:,1) = tempR;
- overlay(:,:,2) = tempG;
- overlay(:,:,3) = tempB;
- figure; imagesc(overlay)
- filenameEum = [filepath, mouseNum, '_eumOverlay.jpg'];
- imwrite(overlay, filenameEum);
- %% callbacks
- function doneCallback(hObject, ~)
- delete(hObject);
- exitStim = true;
- end
- end %end function smufMakeEum
smufMakeEum.m at commit 83adab2, under GPL-3.0 · at the source
Overview
- Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
- University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
- Department of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Lead contact
Abstract
Many species communicate via pheromone signals that orchestrate key social and survival behaviors. In laboratory assays, only male mice are observed to broadcast pheromones through urine scent marking. This has contributed to the view that males have specialized circuits and anatomy to intentionally transmit urine pheromones and actively participate in socio-chemical communication, while females remain mute recipients in laboratory settings. Here, we find that simple modifications to standard assays reveal exuberant urine marking by laboratory females, enabling reexamination of its dimorphic features. Chemogenetic inhibition of estrogen receptor-1-expressing (Esr1) neurons in Barrington’s nucleus confirms that both sexes rely on a similar mechanistic strategy necessary for urine marking. Moreover, we find that males and females mark toward a broad set of receivers, including reproductively incapable partners. Sex parity in urine marking reframes the understanding of voluntary chemo-communication function beyond a male-specific behavior to a broader social communication strategy engaged independent of sex or reproductive status.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY-NC), from the paper cited above.
Repository
Its files are read in the Code ↔ Paper reader above, with 3 matches between paragraphs and lines of code.
stowerslab/smuf
83adab2e6094a81a056123ce921f9cac0580ce90, 18 June 2018Availability: 1 check, the latest on 28 September 2026: the link answers
- 28 September 2026: the link answers
11 files
- boundedline.m, MATLAB, 357 lines
- makeMask.m, MATLAB, 18 lines
- pixelsToMicroliters.m, MATLAB, 17 lines
- plotSpikeRaster.m, MATLAB, 516 lines
- smufAnalysisTopLevelScri
pt.m , MATLAB, 380 lines - smufMakeEum.m, MATLAB, 112 lines, 2 matches
- smufVideoToPixels.m, MATLAB, 186 lines, 1 match
- threshToolMod.m, MATLAB, 467 lines
- urineCalibration.m, MATLAB, 50 lines
- LICENSE, License, 674 lines
- README.md, Text, 4 lines
The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.
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Data
No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.
Data and code availability
All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
All analysis codes were previously made available47 and can be found online at github.com/
Any additional information required to reproduce results and reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY-NC), from the paper cited above.
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Version 2, 28 September 2026
- Publisher: n/a → Cell Press
- Authors: added Lisa Stowers (0000-0002-4403-1269); removed Lisa Stowers
Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 10 authors, 14 keywords, 13 MeSH terms, 10 funders, 69 references, 6 RRIDs.
Cite
This paper
Mukhopadhyay, S., Cole, N., ElGhayati, P., Pallé, A., Miller, C. H., Melendez-Perdomo, D., Keller, J. A., Crimaldi, J. P., Ermentrout, B., & Stowers, L. (2026). Male and female mice scent mark during social communication regardless of sexual motivation or partner identity. Cell reports, 45(6), 117432. https://
BibTeX
@article{mukhopadhyay202
author = {Mukhopadhyay, Sourish and Cole, Natalie and ElGhayati, Pansée and Pallé, Anna and Miller, Caitlin H. and Melendez-Perdomo, David and Keller, Jason A. and Crimaldi, John P. and Ermentrout, Bard and Stowers, Lisa},
title = {{Male and female mice scent mark during social communication regardless of sexual motivation or partner identity}},
journal = {Cell reports},
year = {2026},
month = may,
volume = {45},
number = {6},
pages = {117432},
publisher = {Cell Press},
issn = {2211-1247},
doi = {10.1016/
url = {https://
pmid = {42176265},
pmcid = {PMC13505964}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Mukhopadhyay, Sourish
AU - Cole, Natalie
AU - ElGhayati, Pansée
AU - Pallé, Anna
AU - Miller, Caitlin H.
AU - Melendez-Perdomo, David
AU - Keller, Jason A.
AU - Crimaldi, John P.
AU - Ermentrout, Bard
AU - Stowers, Lisa
TI - Male and female mice scent mark during social communication regardless of sexual motivation or partner identity
T2 - Cell reports
J2 - Cell Rep
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 45
IS - 6
SP - 117432
SN - 2211-1247
PB - Cell Press
DO - 10.1016/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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