| Popis: |
Female mice exhibit opposing social behaviors towards males, depending on their reproductive state: virgins display sexual receptivity (lordosis behavior), while lactating mothers attack. How a change in reproductive state produces a qualitative switch in behavioral response to the same conspecific stimulus is unknown. Using single-cell RNAseq, we identify two distinct subtypes of Estrogen receptor-1 (Esr1)-positive neurons in the ventrolateral subdivision of the female ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHvl), and demonstrate that they causally control sexual receptivity and aggressiveness in virgins and lactating mothers, respectively. Between- and within-subject bulk calcium recordings from each subtype reveal that the aggression-specific cells acquire an increased responsiveness to social cues during the transition from virginity to maternity, while the responsiveness of the mating-specific population appears unchanged. These results demonstrate that reproductive state-dependent changes in the relative activity of transcriptomically distinct neural subtypes can underlie categorical switches in behavior associated with physiological state changes. |
