Wohl Margot, Ishii Kenichi, Asahina Kenta
Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States.
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, United States.
Elife. 2020 Apr 21;9:e52702. doi: 10.7554/eLife.52702.
Inter-male aggressive behavior is a prominent sexually dimorphic behavior. Neural circuits that underlie aggressive behavior are therefore likely under the control of sex-determining genes. However, the neurogenetic mechanism that generates sex-specific aggressive behavior remains largely unknown. Here, we found that a neuronal class specified by one of the sex determining genes, (), belongs to the neural circuit that generates male-type aggressive behavior. This neuronal class can promote aggressive behavior independent of another sex determining gene, (), although is involved in ensuring that aggressive behavior is performed only toward males. We also found that three isoforms with different DNA binding domains show a division of labor on male aggressive behaviors. A dominant role of in specifying sex-specific aggressive behavior may underscore a genetic mechanism that allows male-type aggressive behavior to evolve at least partially independently from courtship behavior, which is under different selective pressures.
雄性间的攻击行为是一种显著的两性异形行为。因此，构成攻击行为基础的神经回路可能受性别决定基因的控制。然而，产生性别特异性攻击行为的神经遗传机制在很大程度上仍不清楚。在这里，我们发现由一个性别决定基因（）所指定的一类神经元属于产生雄性类型攻击行为的神经回路。尽管（）参与确保攻击行为仅针对雄性，但这一类神经元可以独立于另一个性别决定基因（）促进攻击行为。我们还发现，具有不同DNA结合结构域的三种（）同工型在雄性攻击行为上表现出分工。（）在指定性别特异性攻击行为中的主导作用可能强调了一种遗传机制，该机制使雄性类型的攻击行为能够至少部分独立于求偶行为而进化，求偶行为受到不同的选择压力。
