Serotonin neurons in mating female mice are activated by male ejaculation

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

SUMMARY

Sexual stimulation triggers changes in female physiology and behavior, including sexual satiety and preparing the uterus for pregnancy. Serotonin is an important regulator of reproductive physiology and sexual receptivity, but the relationship between sexual stimulation and serotonin neural activity in females is poorly understood. Here, we investigated dorsal raphe serotonin neural activity in females during sexual behavior. We found that serotonin neural activity in mating females peaked specifically upon male ejaculation, and remained elevated above baseline until disengagement. Artificial intravaginal mechanical stimulation was sufficient to elicit increased 5-HT neural activity but the delivery of ejaculatory fluids was not. Distal penis erectile enlargement (“penile cupping”) at ejaculation and forceful expulsion of ejaculatory fluid each provided sufficient mechanical stimulation to elicit serotonin neuron activation. Our study identifies a female ejaculation-specific signal in a major neuromodulatory system and shows that intravaginal mechanosensory stimulation is necessary and sufficient to drive this signal.

Related collections

Most cited references 132

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Ultra-sensitive fluorescent proteins for imaging neuronal activity

Wen-Wen Chen, Trevor J. Wardill, Yi Sun … (2013)

Summary Fluorescent calcium sensors are widely used to image neural activity. Using structure-based mutagenesis and neuron-based screening, we developed a family of ultra-sensitive protein calcium sensors (GCaMP6) that outperformed other sensors in cultured neurons and in zebrafish, flies, and mice in vivo. In layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons of the mouse visual cortex, GCaMP6 reliably detected single action potentials in neuronal somata and orientation-tuned synaptic calcium transients in individual dendritic spines. The orientation tuning of structurally persistent spines was largely stable over timescales of weeks. Orientation tuning averaged across spine populations predicted the tuning of their parent cell. Although the somata of GABAergic neurons showed little orientation tuning, their dendrites included highly tuned dendritic segments (5 - 40 micrometers long). GCaMP6 sensors thus provide new windows into the organization and dynamics of neural circuits over multiple spatial and temporal scales.

0 comments Cited 1281 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Piezo1 and Piezo2 are essential components of distinct mechanically activated cation channels.

B Coste, J Mathur, M. Schmidt … (2010)

Mechanical stimuli drive many physiological processes, including touch and pain sensation, hearing, and blood pressure regulation. Mechanically activated (MA) cation channel activities have been recorded in many cells, but the responsible molecules have not been identified. We characterized a rapidly adapting MA current in a mouse neuroblastoma cell line. Expression profiling and RNA interference knockdown of candidate genes identified Piezo1 (Fam38A) to be required for MA currents in these cells. Piezo1 and related Piezo2 (Fam38B) are vertebrate multipass transmembrane proteins with homologs in invertebrates, plants, and protozoa. Overexpression of mouse Piezo1 or Piezo2 induced two kinetically distinct MA currents. Piezos are expressed in several tissues, and knockdown of Piezo2 in dorsal root ganglia neurons specifically reduced rapidly adapting MA currents. We propose that Piezos are components of MA cation channels.

0 comments Cited 626 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Unbiased classification of sensory neuron types by large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing.

Dmitry Usoskin, Alessandro Furlan, Saiful Islam … (2015)

The primary sensory system requires the integrated function of multiple cell types, although its full complexity remains unclear. We used comprehensive transcriptome analysis of 622 single mouse neurons to classify them in an unbiased manner, independent of any a priori knowledge of sensory subtypes. Our results reveal eleven types: three distinct low-threshold mechanoreceptive neurons, two proprioceptive, and six principal types of thermosensitive, itch sensitive, type C low-threshold mechanosensitive and nociceptive neurons with markedly different molecular and operational properties. Confirming previously anticipated major neuronal types, our results also classify and provide markers for new, functionally distinct subtypes. For example, our results suggest that itching during inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis is linked to a distinct itch-generating type. We demonstrate single-cell RNA-seq as an effective strategy for dissecting sensory responsive cells into distinct neuronal types. The resulting catalog illustrates the diversity of sensory types and the cellular complexity underlying somatic sensation.

0 comments Cited 439 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): bioRxiv

Journal ID (publisher-id): BIORXIV

Title: bioRxiv

Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Publication date (Electronic): 19 August 2023

Electronic Location Identifier: 2023.05.14.540716

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

[2 ]Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

[3 ]Cornell Neurotech, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

[4 ]Lead Contact

Author notes

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Conceptualization, E.L.T. and M.R.W.; Methodology, E.L.T. and M.R.W.; Software, C.S., A.G., and E.L.T.; Investigation, E.L.T. and M.R.W.; Analysis, E.L.T., C.S., A.G., and M.R.W.; Writing – Original Draft, E.L.T. and M.R.W.; Writing – Review and Editing, E.L.T., C.S., A.G., and M.R.W.; Supervision, M.R.W.

[* ]Correspondence: mrwarden@ 123456cornell.edu

Article

DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.14.540716

PMC ID: 10461921

PubMed ID: 37645786

SO-VID: 4fc720db-105f-4b3f-add5-c08e00432132

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

Serotonin neurons in mating female mice are activated by male ejaculation

Read this article at

SUMMARY

Related collections

Serotonin and BEYOND

Most cited references 132

Ultra-sensitive fluorescent proteins for imaging neuronal activity

Piezo1 and Piezo2 are essential components of distinct mechanically activated cation channels.

Unbiased classification of sensory neuron types by large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 322

Most referenced authors 1,308