The pheromone in mice responsible for attracting female mice was called “Darcin” after Mr. Darcy from “Pride and Prejudice”.
Male house mice, like many animals, produce volatile pheromones that influence the reproductive physiology and behaviour of females. These pheromones are transported to the urine by so-called major urinary proteins (MUPs) encoded by 21 MUP genes. MUP genes are produced mainly in the liver and excreted in urine. The researchers were not surprised that male mice produce such a great amount of protein in their urine, and much more than females. MUPs transport not only pheromones in the urine, they also stabilize their release from scent marks. Without this mechanism, the pheromones in scent-marks would quickly disappear.
One of the functions of the MUPs is to attract females—especially MUP20, also known as darcin, named after Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s romantic novel Pride and Prejudice.