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Edited by Catherine G. Dulac, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and accepted by the Editorial Board April 30, 2013 (received for review November 30, 2012)
Abstract
A role for serotonin in male sexual preference was recently uncovered by our finding that male mutant mice lacking serotonin have lost sexual preference. Here we show that female mouse mutants lacking either central serotonergic neurons or serotonin prefer female over male genital odors when given a choice, and displayed increased female–female mounting when presented either with a choice of a male and a female target or only with a female target. Pharmacological manipulations and genetic rescue experiments showed that serotonin is required in adults. Behavioral changes caused by deficient serotonergic signaling were not due to changes in plasma concentrations of sex hormones. We demonstrate that a genetic manipulation reverses sexual preference without involving sex hormones. Our results indicate that serotonin controls sexual preference.
Footnotes
↵1S.Z. and Y.L. contributed equally to this work.
- ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yrao{at}pku.edu.cn.
Author contributions: S.Z., Y.L., and Y.R. designed research; S.Z. and Y.L. performed research; S.Z., Y.L., and Y.R. analyzed data; and S.Z., Y.L., and Y.R. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. C.G.D. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1220712110/-/DCSupplemental.
Serotonin and female sexual preference
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