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The scent of a novel male can elicit pregnancy block in recently mated female mice (Mus musculus) ,a phenomenon known as the Bruce effect.Despite abundant literature on the Bruce effect in rodents,it remains unclear whether males related to a females original mate can induce the Bruce effect in out-bred and communal living mice.We investigated this question using Kunming (KM) male mice of varying genetic relatedness.Recently mated females were subjected to 3 treatments: urine of the mate,urine of the mates brother,and urine of a male unrelated to the mate.We found that brothers of mates did not elicit pregnancy block more than mates.However,the urine of brothers caused a lower rate of female miscarriage than that of novel males.We also used a habituation-dishabituation paradigm to test whether females can discriminate among habituated males,their brothers,and males unrelated to either by urine.To understand how females use urinary cues to discriminate between related and unrelated males,we used gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to compare the volatile composition of urine from males of varying relatedness.We found that KM males of the same brood shared similar volatile compositions of their urine.The discrimination ability and corresponding response of females may have evolved to adapt to communal living.