title: A wide range of pheromone-stimulated sexual and reproductive behaviors in female mice depend on G protein Gαo.
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 Gαo. Female mice mutant for Gαo 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. Gαo-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, Gαo impacts on both instinctive and learned social responses to pheromones.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results highlight that sensory neurons of the Gαo-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.
authors.forename: Livio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oboti
authors.forename: Anabel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pérez-Gómez
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jacobi
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Birnbaumer
authors.forename: Trese
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leinders-Zufall
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Saarland School of Medicine, 66421 Homburg, Germany. frank.zufall@uks.eu.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zufall
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chamero
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D030762:Estrous Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010053:Ovary / Q000473:pathology; D010675:Pheromones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011187:Posture; D012098:Reproduction / Q000187:drug effects*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000187:drug effects; D012903:Smell / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D010675:Pheromones; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins