How plants make cats happy :  Behavioral differences among domestic cats in the response to cat-attracting plants and their volatile compounds reveal a potential distinct mechanism of action for actinidine

It has been known for centuries that cats respond euphorically tocatnip. We showed that among others Tatarian honeysuckle and silver vine can also elicit this “catnip response”. The behavior seen during the responses was different between cats. While individual cats had preferences for particular plants, the behavior of individual cats was consistent among all plants. About half a dozen lactones similar in structure to nepetalactone were able to elicit the “catnip response”, as were the structurally more distinct molecules actinidine and dihydroactinidiolide. Most cats did not respond to actinidine, whereas those who did, responded longer to this volatile than any of the other secondary plant metabolites, and different behavior was observed. A range of different cat-attracting compounds was detected by chemical analysis of plant materials but differences in cat behavior could not be directly related to differences in chemical composition of the plants. Collectively, these findings suggest that both the personality of the cat and genetic variation in the genes encoding olfactory receptors may play a role in how cats respond to cat-attracting plants. Furthermore, the data suggest a potential distinct mechanism of action for actinidine.

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Journal

Title: ScienceOpen Posters

Publisher: ScienceOpen

Publication date (Electronic preprint): 1 April 2022

Affiliations

[1 ] Cowboy Cat Ranch, Mico, Texas, United States of America

[2 ] School of Molecular Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Western Australia, Australia

[3 ] San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Author notes

[* ]Email: bol@ 123456cowboycatranch.org .

Author information

Sebastiaan Bol https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3843-6657

Evelien Bunnik https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4003-3053

Gavin Flematti https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2545-6939

Article

DOI: 10.14293/S2199-1006.1.SOR-.PPGVZYF.v1

SO-VID: 377faec5-86bb-4f53-8b43-9d789a6afb18

License:

This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

History

Date received : 1 April 2022

Data availability: All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

ScienceOpen disciplines: Chemistry,Veterinary medicine,Life sciences

Keywords: catnip, silver vine, Tatarian honeysuckle, olfactory enrichment, olfaction, smell, nepetalactone, actinidine, dihydroactinidiolide, animal behavior

References

Bol Sebastiaan, Caspers Jana, Buckingham Lauren, Anderson-Shelton Gail Denise, Ridgway Carrie, Buffington C. A. Tony, Schulz Stefan, Bunnik Evelien M.. Responsiveness of cats (Felidae) to silver vine (Actinidia polygama), Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and catnip (Nepeta cataria). BMC Veterinary Research. Vol. 13(1)2017. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. [Cross Ref]
Bol Sebastiaan, Scaffidi Adrian, Bunnik Evelien M., Flematti Gavin R.. Behavioral differences among domestic cats in the response to cat-attracting plants and their volatile compounds reveal a potential distinct mechanism of action for actinidine. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. [Cross Ref]

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[1] Bol Sebastiaan, Caspers Jana, Buckingham Lauren, Anderson-Shelton Gail Denise, Ridgway Carrie, Buffington C. A. Tony, Schulz Stefan, Bunnik Evelien M.. Responsiveness of cats (Felidae) to silver vine (Actinidia polygama), Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and catnip (Nepeta cataria). BMC Veterinary Research. Vol. 13(1)2017. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. [Cross Ref]

[2] Bol Sebastiaan, Scaffidi Adrian, Bunnik Evelien M., Flematti Gavin R.. Behavioral differences among domestic cats in the response to cat-attracting plants and their volatile compounds reveal a potential distinct mechanism of action for actinidine. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. [Cross Ref]