[L5] Molecular, receptor, and neural bases for chemosensory-mediated sexual and social behavior in mice
Lecturer
Date/Time
June 29, 2021 10:40am-12:00pm
Abstract
For many animals, the sense of olfaction plays a major role in controlling sexual behaviors. Olfaction helps animals to detect mates, discriminate their status, and ultimately, decide on their behavioral output such as courtship behavior or aggression. Specific pheromone cues and receptors have provided a useful model to study how sensory inputs are converted into certain behavioral outputs. With the aid of recent advances in tools to record and manipulate genetically defined neurons, our understanding of the neural basis of sexual and social behavior has expanded substantially. I will discuss the current understanding of the neural processing of sex pheromones and the neural circuitry which controls sexual and social behaviors and ultimately reproduction, by focusing on rodent studies, mainly in mice, and the vomeronasal sensory system.
References
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- Osakada, T., Ishii, K.K., Mori, H., Eguchi, R., Ferrero, D.M., Yoshihara, Y., Liberles, S.D., Miyamichi, K.*, and Touhara, K.* “Sexual rejection via a vomeronasal receptor-triggered limbic circuit” Nature Communications 9, 4463 (2018)
- Ishii, K., Osakada, T., Mori, H., Miyasaka, N., Yoshihara, Y., Miyamichi, K.*, and Touhara, K.* “A Labeled-Line Neural Circuit for Pheromone-Mediated Sexual Behaviors in Mice” Neuron 95, 123-137 (2017)
- Haga, S., Hattori, T., Sato, T., Sato, K., Matsuda, S., Kobayakawa, R., Sakano, H., Yoshihara, Y., Kikusui, T. and Touhara, K.* “The male mouse pheromone ESP1 enhances female sexual receptive behavior through a specific vomeronasal receptor” Nature 466, 118-122 (2010)