Naked mole-rats are highly social rodents that live in large colonies characterized by a rigid social and reproductive hierarchy. Only one female, the queen, breeds. Most colony members are nonreproductive subordinates that work cooperatively to rear the young and maintain an underground burrow system. Little is known about the neurobiological basis of the complex sociality exhibited by this species. The neuropeptide oxytocin (Oxt) modulates social bonding and other social behaviors in many vertebrates. Here we examined the distribution of Oxt immunoreactivity in the brains of male and female naked mole-rats. As in other species, the majority of Oxt-immunoreactive (Oxt-ir) cells were found in the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei, with additional labeled cells scattered throughout the preoptic and anterior hypothalamic areas. Oxt-ir fibers were found traveling toward and through the median eminence, as well as in the tenia tecta, septum, and nucleus of diagonal band of Broca. A moderate network of fibers covered the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and preoptic area, and a particularly dense fiber innervation of the nucleus accumbens and substantia innominata was observed. In the brainstem, Oxt-ir fibers were found in the periaqueductal grey, locus coeruleus, parabrachial nucleus, nucleus of the solitary tract, and nuclueus ambiguus. The high levels of Oxt immunoreactivity in the nucleus accumbens and preoptic area are intriguing, given the link in other rodents between Oxt signaling in these regions and maternal behavior. Although only the queen gives birth or nurses pups in a naked mole-rat colony, most individuals actively participate in pup care.

A wide variety of organisms exhibit circadian rhythms, regulated by internal clocks that are entrained primarily by the alternating cycle of light and darkness. There have been few studies of circadian rhythms in fossorial species that inhabit a microenvironment where day-night variations in most environmental parameters are minimized and where exposure to light occurs only infrequently. In this study, daily patterns of locomotor activity and body temperature (Tb) were examined in adult blind mole-rats (Spalax ehrenbergi). These fossorial rodents lack external eyes but possess rudimentary ocular structures that are embedded in the Harderian glands and covered by skin and fur. Most individual mole-rats exhibited circadian rhythms of locomotor activity, but some animals were arrhythmic. Individuals that did exhibit robust rhythms of locomotor activity also showed rhythms of Tb. In most cases, Tb was highest during the phase of intense locomotor activity. Locomotor activity rhythms could be entrained to light:dark cycles, and several mole-rats exhibited entrainment to non-24-h light cycles (T-cycles) with period lengths ranging from T = 23 h to T = 25 h. Some individuals also showed entrainment to daily cycles of ambient temperature. There was considerable interindividual variation in the daily patterns of locomotor activity among mole-rats in virtually all the conditions of environmental lighting and temperature employed in this study. Thus, whereas it appears likely that photic cues have a significant role in the entrainment of circadian rhythms in mole-rats, the amount of variability in rhythm patterns among individuals appears to be much greater than for most species that have been studied.

Naked mole-rats are eusocial rodents that live in large subterranean colonies in which one queen breeds with one to three males. All other animals are nonbreeding subordinates. The external features of male and female subordinates, including their genitalia, are remarkably monomorphic, as is their behavior. Because vasopressin (VP) is associated with social behaviors and sex differences in other species, its distribution in naked mole-rats was of interest. We used immunohistochemistry to examine VP in the brains of subordinate and breeding naked mole-rats of both sexes. As in other mammals, VP-immunoreactive (-ir) somata were found in the paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic nuclei (SON) and VP-ir projections from these nuclei ran through the internal and external zone of the median eminence. However, naked mole-rats had very few VP-ir cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) and none in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN); the extensive network of fine-caliber VP-ir fibers usually seen in projection sites of the BST and SCN were also absent. Equally unexpected was the abundance of large-caliber VP-ir fibers in the dorsomedial septum. VP immunoreactivity was generally similar in all groups, with the exception of VP-ir cell number in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH). Breeders had a population of labeled cells in the DMH that was absent, or nearly absent, in subordinates. Future studies on the function of VP in these areas are needed to determine how the atypical distribution of VP immunoreactivity relates to eusociality and the unusual physiology of naked mole-rats.

No abstract

Sexual differentiation of the mammalian nervous system has been studied intensively for over 25 years. Most of what we know, however, comes from work on relatively non-social species in which direct reproduction (i.e., production of offspring) is virtually the only route to reproductive success. In social species, an individual's inclusive fitness may include contributions to the gene pool that are achieved by supporting the reproductive efforts of close relatives; this feature is most evident in eusocial organisms. Here, we review what is known about neuroendocrine mechanisms, sexual differentiation, and effects of social status on the brain and spinal cord in two eusocial mammals: the naked mole-rat and Damaraland mole-rat. These small rodents exhibit the most rigidly organized reproductive hierarchy among mammals, with reproduction suppressed in a majority of individuals. Our findings suggest that eusociality may be associated with a relative lack of sex differences and a reduced influence of gonadal hormones on some functions to which these hormones are usually tightly linked. We also identify neural changes accompanying a change in social and reproductive status, and discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the evolution of sex differences and the neuroendocrinology of reproductive suppression.