F Prostaglandins Function as Potent Olfactory Stimulants that Comprise the Postovulatory Female Sex Pheromone in Goldfish1

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Abstract
This study establishes that ovulated female goldfish release F type prostaglandins (PGFs) to the water where they stimulate male spawning behavior and comprise the goldfish release immunoreactive PGFs to the water. Next, using electro-olfactogram recording (EOG), we determined that waterborne prostaglandins function as potent olfactory stimulants for mature male goldfish. Prostaglandign F2.alpha. (PGF2.alpha.) and its metabolite 15-keto-prostaglandin F2.alpha. (15K-PGF2.alpha.) were the most potent prostaglandins; the former had a detection threshold of 10-10M and the latter a detection threshold of 10-12M. Studies of prostaglandin-injected that PGF metabolites are an important component of the pheromone. Cross-adaptation experimetns using the EOG demonstrated that goldfish have separate olfactory receptor sites for PGF2.alpha. and 15K-PGF2.alpha. that are independent from those that detect other olfactory stimulants. Finally, we established that male goldfish exposed to low concentrations of waterborne PGFs exhibit reproductive behaviors similar to those elicited by exposure to the odor of ovulated fish. Together with our recent discovery that a steroidal maturational hormone functions as a preovulatory "priming" pheromone for goldfish, these findings suggest that hormones and their metabolites may commonly serve as reproductive pheromones in fish.