| Title: | Sex-dependent control of pheromones on social organization within groups of wild house mice |
| Author(s): | Zilkha N; Chuartzman SG; Sofer Y; Pen Y; Cum M; Mayo A; Alon U; Kimchi T; |
| Address: | "Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel. Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel. Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel. Electronic address: tali.kimchi@weizmann.ac.il" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.039 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-0445 (Electronic) 0960-9822 (Print) 0960-9822 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Dominance hierarchy is a fundamental social phenomenon in a wide range of mammalian species, critically affecting fitness and health. Here, we investigate the role of pheromone signals in the control of social hierarchies and individual personalities within groups of wild mice. For this purpose, we combine high-throughput behavioral phenotyping with computational tools in freely interacting groups of wild house mice, males and females, in an automated, semi-natural system. We show that wild mice form dominance hierarchies in both sexes but use sex-specific strategies, displaying distinct male-typical and female-typical behavioral personalities that were also associated with social ranking. Genetic disabling of VNO-mediated pheromone detection generated opposite behavioral effects within groups, enhancing social interactions in males and reducing them in females. Behavioral personalities in the mutated mice displayed mixtures of male-typical and female-typical behaviors, thus blurring sex differences. In addition, rank-associated personalities were abolished despite the fact that both sexes of mutant mice formed stable hierarchies. These findings suggest that group organization is governed by pheromone-mediated sex-specific neural circuits and pave the way to investigate the mechanisms underlying sexual dimorphism in dominance hierarchies under naturalistic settings" |
| Keywords: | "Female Animals Male Mice *Pheromones *Aggression Sexual Behavior, Animal Social Dominance Sex Characteristics Mammals Pareto task interface dominance hierarchy group social behavior personality pheromones sexual dimorphism vomeronasal system wild mice;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineZilkha, Noga Chuartzman, Silvia Gabriela Sofer, Yizhak Pen, Yefim Cum, Meghan Mayo, Avi Alon, Uri Kimchi, Tali eng England 2023/03/15 Curr Biol. 2023 Apr 24; 33(8):1407-1420.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.039. Epub 2023 Mar 13" |
