pheromone signaling

Every compound in the sci-wiki that affects pheromone signaling; the ones you can source are floated to the front, then the reference-only entries. Tap any for the full entry, mechanism, and outlets.

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Neurosteroid

Androstadienol

Androstadienol (androsta-5,16-dien-3β-ol) is an endogenous C19 (nineteen-carbon) delta-5,16 steroid alcohol that functions as the committed biosynthetic precursor of the 16-androstene family of chemosensory steroids, including androstadienone, androstenone and androstenol. It is formed in the gonads (and, at lower levels, in other steroidogenic tissue) from pregnenolone by a minor side activity of the enzyme CYP17A1 (cytochrome P450 17A1, the same enzyme that makes dehydroepiandrosterone); this activity is historically called andien-beta synthase or 16-ene-synthase. Because its downstream metabolites are the putative human axillary chemosignals and the compounds responsible for boar taint, androstadienol occupies the upstream branch point of a pathway of considerable interest to olfactory neuroscience and reproductive endocrinology. It should not be confused with fasedienol (aloradine), a synthetic 4,16-dien-3β-ol nasal drug; androstadienol is the naturally occurring 5,16-diene.

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Neurosteroid

Androstenone

Androstenone (5alpha-androst-16-en-3-one) is an endogenous 16-androstene steroid and the archetypal mammalian putative pheromone, best known as the principal component of "boar taint" (the urinous off-odor of intact male pork) and as a minor constituent of human axillary sweat and saliva. Unlike the classic anesthetic neurosteroids that act on the GABA-A receptor (the brain's main inhibitory ion channel), androstenone is a chemosensory neuroactive steroid; its dominant known target in the nervous system is the olfactory receptor OR7D4, expressed on sensory neurons of the nasal epithelium. Its perception is one of the most strikingly variable in human sensory biology, ranging from a strong urinous or sweaty odor, to a faint sweet or floral note, to complete inability to detect it, and this variation is largely explained by coding polymorphisms in the OR7D4 gene. The compound is a foundational model odorant for the molecular genetics of smell, for specific anosmia, and for olfactory plasticity.

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