Sex separation induces differences in the olfactory sensory receptor repertoires of male and female mice

Carl van der Linden, Susanne Jakob, Pooja Gupta, Catherine Dulac and Stephen W. Santoro ()
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Carl van der Linden: University of Wyoming
Susanne Jakob: Harvard University
Pooja Gupta: University of Wyoming
Catherine Dulac: Harvard University
Stephen W. Santoro: University of Wyoming

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Within the mammalian olfactory sensory epithelium, experience-dependent changes in the rate of neuronal turnover can alter the relative abundance of neurons expressing specific chemoreceptors. Here we investigate how the mouse olfactory sensory receptor repertoire changes as a function of exposure to odors emitted from members of the opposite sex, which are highly complex and sexually dimorphic. Upon housing mice either sex-separated or sex-combined until six months of age, we find that sex-separated mice exhibit significantly more numerous differentially expressed genes within their olfactory epithelia. A subset of these chemoreceptors exhibit altered expression frequencies following both sex-separation and olfactory deprivation. We show that several of these receptors detect either male- or female-specific odors. We conclude that the distinct odor experiences of sex-separated male and female mice induce sex-specific differences in the abundance of neurons that detect sexually dimorphic odors.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07120-1

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