Authorship：Lead author   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

Abstract

Many animals utilize pheromones as chemical substances that regulate reproductive and social behaviors. Elucidating how diverse pheromonal compounds are detected and translated into specific behavioral and physiological responses is crucial for understanding animal behavior. In vertebrates, pheromone reception is primarily mediated by the vomeronasal organ. Vomeronasal sensory neurons detect a broad range of semiochemical molecules, including pheromones and allelochemicals, and transmit this information via the accessory olfactory bulb to higher brain regions, such as the amygdala and hypothalamic regions. Although recent studies have advanced the identification of pheromonal molecules and the analysis of the neural circuits responsible for their detection, ligands have been identified for only a small fraction of the hundreds of vomeronasal receptors. Analyses of genetically engineered mice lacking key components of vomeronasal signal transduction in vomeronasal sensory neurons have provided comprehensive insights into the relationship between vomeronasal sensory input and behavioral output. This review focuses on pheromones among the semiochemicals detected by the vomeronasal organ and summarizes current understanding of pheromonal perception and associated social behaviors, primarily based on studies in mice, the most extensively investigated model organism to date.

DOI： 10.1093/chemse/bjag016

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Other Link： https://academic.oup.com/chemse/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/chemse/bjag016/68562210/bjag016.pdf

Authorship：Lead author   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier BV  

DOI： 10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.077

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media LLC  

Abstract

Each olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) expresses a single odorant receptor (OR) gene from the class I or class II repertoire in mice. The mechanisms that regulate OR class choice in OSNs remain unknown. Here, we show that the transcription factor Bcl11b determines the OR class to be expressed in OSNs. Both loss- and gain-of-function analyses demonstrate that class I is a default fate of OSNs and that Bcl11b dictates a class II OR choice by suppressing the effect of the J-element, a class I-OR enhancer. We further demonstrate that OSN-specific genetic manipulations of Bcl11b bias the OR class choice, generating mice with “class I-dominant” and “class II-dominant” noses, which display contrasting innate olfactory behaviors to two distinct aversive odorants. Overall, these findings reveal a unique transcriptional mechanism mediating a binary switch for OR class choice that is crucial to both the anatomical and functional organization of the olfactory system.

DOI： 10.1038/s42003-019-0536-x

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Other Link： https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0536-x

Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/molbev/msy186

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Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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