organisation - the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência

NEUROETHOLOGY
LABORATORY
THIS GROUP IS A MEMBER OF THE CHAMPALIMAUD NEUROSCIENCE PROGRAMME AT THE IGC
Susana Lima Research Fellow
PhD in Neuroscience, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, 2005
Post-doctoral Fellow, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA
Research Fellow at the IGC since 2008
link to external website
The main goal of our laboratory is to gain mechanistic insights into the neuronal
processes underlying fundamental behaviours in females: the choice of a suitable
mate and how to initiate and terminate sexual behaviour. To do so, we use
mice as model system and a combination of approaches that include physiological,
anatomical and molecular tools to dissect the contribution of candidate
brain areas to the emergence of these natural behaviours. Our long-term goal
is to test the hypothesis that mate choice has an impact on the regulation of
sexual behaviour.
NEURONAL MECHANISMS FOR MATE CHOICE IN MICE
Our main goal was to develop a behavioural paradigm of mate choice in mice to then
investigate the neuronal mechanisms responsible for representing mates of different
values and how comparison of competing alternatives are made. We have used a
mate choice paradigm inspired by the natural situation observed in the hybrid zone
between Mus musculus musculus and Mus musculus domesticus in Europe.
GROUP MEMBERS
Léa Zinck (Post-doc)
Vanessa Urbano (Technician)
COLLABORATORS
Marta Moita (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Portugal)
FUNDING
FP7 Marie Curie Reintegration Grant, European Commission
Bial Foundation, Portugal
Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IN SCIENCE
Speed-dating at Optimus Alive (July)
Media Interviews (Falar Global, Jornal de Negócios, Diário de Notícias, RTP1)
We have established a mate choice paradigm with M. m. musculus and M. m.
domesticus, where musculus females exhibit a strong and reliable preference
for their own subspecies. We have also established that this preference is influenced
by early imprinting mechanisms and it increases with multiple testing.
Furthermore, the preference for a specific male is not absolute, but rather flexible
and dependent of the alternatives that are available.
NEURONAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING SEX HORMONE-DEPENDENT SWITCH-
ING OF SEXUAL RECEPTIVITY
Female sexual receptivity changes across the reproductive cycle, being maximal
during the fertile phase. This represents an interesting state-dependent behavioural
output, where the interaction of sexual hormones and the physiology
of neuronal circuits alter the way a female treats the same male stimulus. We
are interested in understanding the role of the ventromedial nucleus of the
hypothalamus (VMH) in the control of this receptivity switch. To this end, we
are performing electrophysiological recordings of this area in naturally cycling
female mice exposed to male stimuli.
During the past year we have developed and troubleshooted electrophysiological
recordings in the VMH of naturally cycling, freely moving females. We are
able to record from well isolated neurons from this area, and we can observe
stimulus triggered responses. We are currently testing other types of electrodes
in order to increase the yield of these experiments.
Two subspecies of house mice in Europe, in allopatry: Mus musculus musculus
and Mus musculus domesticus. Musculus females prefer to mate with musculus
males, domesticus females mate indiscriminately. We have developed a behavioural
paradigm in the laboratory using inbred wild derived animals of the subspecies
musculus (PWD and PWK) and laboratory strains of mice (Black 6) as domesticus.
FEMALE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR:
NEURONAL PATHWAYS FOR AROUSAL TERMINATION
Like all behaviours, sexual arousal has a beginning and an end. Sensory genital
stimulation received by the female during copulation (sensed by mechanoreceptors
present in the cervix and clitoris) is relayed to the brain and is important
for the rewarding effects of copulation and for its termination. Despite being
a fundamental aspect of sexual behaviour, very little is known about how the
brain integrates the genital stimulation received during copulation and how the
brain uses this information to inhibit further sexual arousal.
We have started by establishing a protocol to trace the genital input to the
brain, by using pseudo rabies viruses (PRV) expressing green fluorescent protein.
PRV infects axon terminals of neurons and after infecting a neuron, jumps
to synaptically connected neuronal partners. By employing this method we are
investigating which brain areas are synaptically connected to the genital organs
that receive stimulation during copulation.
PWD females exhibit a strong homosubspecific preference for PWK males, resembling
that observe in the wild.
An example of a putative hypothalamic neuron that responded selectively to female
presentations. Spike histogrammes are shown. This neuron shows selective
responses to the presentations of females from different strains (red).
IGC ANNUAL REPORT ‘11
RESEARCH FELLOWS
77