| Title: | A wide range of pheromone-stimulated sexual and reproductive behaviors in female mice depend on G protein Galphao |
| Author(s): | Oboti L; Perez-Gomez A; Keller M; Jacobi E; Birnbaumer L; Leinders-Zufall T; Zufall F; Chamero P; |
| Address: | "Department of Physiology, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421 Homburg, Germany. frank.zufall@uks.eu" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1741-7007 (Electronic) 1741-7007 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "BACKGROUND: Optimal reproductive fitness is essential for the biological success and survival of species. The vomeronasal organ is strongly implicated in the display of sexual and reproductive behaviors in female mice, yet the roles that apical and basal vomeronasal neuron populations play in controlling these gender-specific behaviors remain largely unclear. RESULTS: To dissect the neural pathways underlying these functions, we genetically inactivated the basal vomeronasal organ layer using conditional, cell-specific ablation of the G protein Galphao. Female mice mutant for Galphao show severe alterations in sexual and reproductive behaviors, timing of puberty onset, and estrous cycle. These mutant mice are insensitive to reproductive facilitation stimulated by male pheromones that accelerate puberty and induce ovulation. Galphao-mutant females exhibit a striking reduction in sexual receptivity or lordosis behavior to males, but gender discrimination seems to be intact. These mice also show a loss in male scent preference, which requires a learned association for volatile olfactory signals with other nonvolatile ownership signals that are contained in the high molecular weight fraction of male urine. Thus, Galphao impacts on both instinctive and learned social responses to pheromones. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight that sensory neurons of the Galphao-expressing vomeronasal subsystem, together with the receptors they express and the molecular cues they detect, control a wide range of fundamental mating and reproductive behaviors in female mice" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Central Nervous System/drug effects/metabolism/pathology Choice Behavior/drug effects Estrous Cycle/drug effects Female GTP-Binding Proteins/*metabolism Gene Deletion Genes, Reporter Gonadal Steroid Hormones/metabolism Green Fluorescent Proteins/m;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineOboti, Livio Perez-Gomez, Anabel Keller, Matthieu Jacobi, Eric Birnbaumer, Lutz Leinders-Zufall, Trese Zufall, Frank Chamero, Pablo eng Z01 ES-101643/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ Intramural NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2014/06/03 BMC Biol. 2014 May 2; 12:31. doi: 10.1186/1741-7007-12-31" |
