title: Sociosexual investigation in sexually experienced, hormonally manipulated male leopard geckos: relation with phosphorylated DARPP-32 in dopaminergic pathways.
abstract: Dopaminergic activity is both associated with sociosexual exposure and modulated by sexual experience and hormonal state across vertebrate taxa. Mature leopard geckos, a reptile with temperature-dependent sex determination, have dopaminoceptive nuclei that are influenced by their embryonic environment and sensitive to adult hormonal manipulation. In this study, we exposed hormonally manipulated male leopard geckos from different incubation temperatures to conspecifics and measured their sociosexual investigation, as well as phosphorylated DARPP-32 at Threonine 34 (pDARPP-32) immunoreactivity as a marker for D1 dopamine receptor activity in the nucleus accumbens, striatum, and preoptic area. Social investigation time by males of different incubation temperatures was modulated in opposite directions by exogenous androgen treatment. Males exposed to novel stimuli spent a greater proportion of time investigating females of different incubation temperatures. The time spent investigating females was positively correlated to pDARPP-32 immunoreactivity in the preoptic area. This is the first study quantifying pDARPP-32 in a lizard species, and suggests the protein as a potential marker to measure differences in the dopaminergic pathway in a social setting with consideration of embryonic environment and hormonal state.
authors.affiliation: Section of Integrative Biology C-0990, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hugh C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hemmings
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Crews
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002369:Castration; D013196:Dihydrotestosterone / Q000378:metabolism; D004298:Dopamine; D051937:Dopamine and cAMP-Regulated Phosphoprotein 32 / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012733:Sex Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D051937:Dopamine and cAMP-Regulated Phosphoprotein 32; D013196:Dihydrotestosterone; D004298:Dopamine