| Title: | Mating Suppresses Alarm Response in Zebrafish |
| Author(s): | Diaz-Verdugo C; Sun GJ; Fawcett CH; Zhu P; Fishman MC; |
| Address: | "Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Chemical Biology & Therapeutics, 181 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Harvard University, Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: mark_fishman@harvard.edu" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.047 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-0445 (Electronic) 0960-9822 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Mating and flight from threats are innate behaviors that enhance species survival [1, 2]. Stimuli to these behaviors often are contemporaneous and conflicting [3, 4]. Both how such conflicts are resolved and where in the brain such decisions are made are poorly understood. For teleosts, olfactory stimuli are key elements of mating and threat responses [5-7]. For example, zebrafish manifest a stereotypical escape response when exposed to an alarm substance released from injured conspecific skin ('skin extract') [8, 9]. We find that when mating, fish ignore this threatening stimulus. Water conditioned by the mating fish ('mating water') suffices to suppress much of the alarm-response behavior. By 2-photon imaging of calcium transients [10], we mapped the regions of the brain responding to skin extract and to mating water. In the telencephalon, we found regions where the responses overlap, one region (medial Dp) to be predominantly activated by skin extract, and another, Vs, to be predominantly activated by mating water. When mating water and skin extract were applied simultaneously, the alarm-specific response was suppressed, while the mating-water-specific response was retained, corresponding to the dominance of mating over flight behavior. The choice made, for reproduction over escape, is opposite to that of mammals, presumably reflecting how the balance affects species survival" |
| Keywords: | "Animals *Escape Reaction *Odorants *Sexual Behavior, Animal Telencephalon/*physiology Water Zebrafish/*physiology alarm pheromone calcium imaging higher olfactory centers mating behavior neuron olfactory conditioning sex pheromone telencephalon zebrafish;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineDiaz-Verdugo, Carmen Sun, Gerald J Fawcett, Caroline H Zhu, Peixin Fishman, Mark C eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2019/07/23 Curr Biol. 2019 Aug 5; 29(15):2541-2546.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.047. Epub 2019 Jul 18" |
