Krause corpuscles are genital vibrotactile sensors for sexual behaviours

Lijun Qi, Michael Iskols, Rachel S. Greenberg, Jia Yin Xiao, Annie Handler, Stephen D. Liberles and David D. Ginty ()
Additional contact information
Lijun Qi: Harvard Medical School
Michael Iskols: Harvard Medical School
Rachel S. Greenberg: Harvard Medical School
Jia Yin Xiao: Harvard Medical School
Annie Handler: Harvard Medical School
Stephen D. Liberles: Harvard Medical School
David D. Ginty: Harvard Medical School

Nature, 2024, vol. 630, issue 8018, 926-934

Abstract: Abstract Krause corpuscles, which were discovered in the 1850s, are specialized sensory structures found within the genitalia and other mucocutaneous tissues1–4. The physiological properties and functions of Krause corpuscles have remained unclear since their discovery. Here we report the anatomical and physiological properties of Krause corpuscles of the mouse clitoris and penis and their roles in sexual behaviour. We observed a high density of Krause corpuscles in the clitoris compared with the penis. Using mouse genetic tools, we identified two distinct somatosensory neuron subtypes that innervate Krause corpuscles of both the clitoris and penis and project to a unique sensory terminal region of the spinal cord. In vivo electrophysiology and calcium imaging experiments showed that both Krause corpuscle afferent types are A-fibre rapid-adapting low-threshold mechanoreceptors, optimally tuned to dynamic, light-touch and mechanical vibrations (40–80 Hz) applied to the clitoris or penis. Functionally, selective optogenetic activation of Krause corpuscle afferent terminals evoked penile erection in male mice and vaginal contraction in female mice, while genetic ablation of Krause corpuscles impaired intromission and ejaculation of males and reduced sexual receptivity of females. Thus, Krause corpuscles of the clitoris and penis are highly sensitive mechanical vibration detectors that mediate sexually dimorphic mating behaviours.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07528-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:630:y:2024:i:8018:d:10.1038_s41586-024-07528-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07528-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().