| Increasing evidences from neuroscience show more and more convergences of main olfactory and vomeronasal systems in detecting chemical cues. Currently, we conducted a series of experiments of mice (Mus musculus) and golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) to examine the differences in effects of vomeronasal organ (VNO) on recognition and discrimination of chemical cues of biological significances, behavior, production and physiology. We used binary choice test to examine the recognition responses and habituation/dishabituation test to examine the discrimination abilities. We found that VNO lesion eliminated the preferential responses of mice between the scents of mates and nonmates, offspring and non-offspring or conspecifics of opposite sex and predators (cat or rat urine), OH/10(or AC/2) and water,OH/5 (or AC) and water as well as conspecifics of same sex and opposite sex, and VNO lesion eliminated the preferential responses of golden hamster between the scents of weasel and 14C+16C. In agreement with reported effects of VNO lesion on preferences for and discrimination of sexual odorants, VNO lesion results in functional deficiencies in chemosensory recognition of biological cues other than discrimination abilities, but there is no report about the anxious responses and the fitness of offsprings. Maze tests show that VNO lesion stressed the male mice and golden hamsters a little, but not the female mice. There were no effects on the aggression, urine marking and attraction of male mice after the VNO lesion. In mice, the body weights were not been affected, but the adrenal gland of male mice decreased, preputial gland increased after the surgery. VNO lesion decreased the aggression of female golden hamsters, but did not affect the male's aggression and flank marking, body weights of male and female golden hamsters. The fitness of VNOx group's offsprings in mice and golden hamsters declined.
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