Urinary lipocalins in Mastomys coucha Ecological genetics meets epigenetics Collection of papers from the 1st Central European Meeting on mouse epigenetics in Nové Hrady, Czech Republic 14.-17.8.2008
The presence of large amounts of proteins in mammal urine is usually associated with a pathological condition and indicates serious renal lesions. However, there are few species with obligate proteinuria indicating that they must derive some benefit from this condition. Urinary proteins have been most extensively studied in the house mouse and the rat, and findings to date indicate that their function in intraspecific communication is complex and not yet fully understood. Other proteins of the same protein family as MUPs have been also found in urine of some other rodent species, and still less is known about these. In this study we demonstrate the existence of urinary lipocalins in Mastomys coucha for the first time. Our results support the hypothesis that urinary proteins may play an important role in chemical communication, and level of polymorphism of these proteins in different rodents may help us to understand their specific function.