Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 108, Issue 20, Pages 8479-8484Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1018782108
Keywords
sex-specific response; innate olfactory response; maternal behavior; main olfactory bulb; accessory olfactory bulb
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Funding
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [10J04652, 22123002, 21240028, 23240046, 23500390] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Although the functional significance of adult neurogenesis in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory has been well documented, the role of such neurogenesis in olfactory activity is rather obscure. To understand the significance of adult neurogenesis in olfactory functions, we genetically ablated newly born neurons by using tamoxifen-treated Nestin-CreERT2; neuron-specific enolasediphtheria toxin fragment A (NSE-DTA) mice. In these mice, tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase allows the NSE (Eno2) gene to drive DTA expression in differentiating neurons, leading to the efficient ablation of newly born neurons in the forebrain. These mutant mice were capable of discriminating odors as competently as control mice. Strikingly, although control and mutant mice frequently showed freezing behaviors to a fox scent, a predator odor, mutant mice approached this odor when they were conditioned to associate the odor with a reward, whereas control mice did not approach the odor. Furthermore, although mutant males and females showed normal social recognition behaviors to other mice of a different sex, mutant males displayed deficits in male-male aggression and male sexual behaviors toward females, whereas mutant females displayed deficits in fertility and nurturing, indicating that sex-specific activities, which are known to depend on olfaction, are impaired. These results suggest that continuous neurogenesis is required for predator avoidance and sex-specific responses that are olfaction dependent and innately programmed.
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