Two genetic loci control syllable sequences of ultrasonic courtship vocalizations in inbred mice

Choi, Hansol; Park, Saegeun; Kim, Daesoo

doi:10.1186/1471-2202-12-104

Cited by 12 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…High acoustic variability has been noted in all other studies that have examined and categorized ultrasonic vocal repertoire in rodents, both in mice pups [ 80 ] and in adult rodents (e.g. [ 31 , 37 , 68 , 92 , 93 ]). We classified hamster USV into call types, but these were far from stereotypical vocalizations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adult rodent USV have been typically recorded during intersexual encounters in several species, are activated by gonadal steroids and appear to facilitate mating, supporting the interpretation that these signals may function in courtship and mating behaviors [ 5 – 31 ]. In addition, some vocal signatures have been found in house mice USV that serve to discriminate vocalizations from mice of different ages [ 32 , 33 ], natural populations [ 34 ], strains [ 35 – 37 ] and individuals [ 26 , 31 , 38 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) Reveal Modest Sex Differences and Nonlinear Signals of Sexual Motivation

Fernández-Vargas

Johnston

2015

PLoS ONE

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Vocal signaling is one of many behaviors that animals perform during social interactions. Vocalizations produced by both sexes before mating can communicate sex, identity and condition of the caller. Adult golden hamsters produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) after intersexual contact. To determine whether these vocalizations are sexually dimorphic, we analyzed the vocal repertoire for sex differences in: 1) calling rates, 2) composition (structural complexity, call types and nonlinear phenomena) and 3) acoustic structure. In addition, we examined it for individual variation in the calls. The vocal repertoire was mainly composed of 1-note simple calls and at least half of them presented some degree of deterministic chaos. The prevalence of this nonlinear phenomenon was confirmed by low values of harmonic-to-noise ratio for most calls. We found modest sexual differences between repertoires. Males were more likely than females to produce tonal and less chaotic calls, as well as call types with frequency jumps. Multivariate analysis of the acoustic features of 1-note simple calls revealed significant sex differences in the second axis represented mostly by entropy and bandwidth parameters. Male calls showed lower entropy and inter-quartile bandwidth than female calls. Because the variation of acoustic structure within individuals was higher than among individuals, USV could not be reliably assigned to the correct individual. Interestingly, however, this high variability, augmented by the prevalence of chaos and frequency jumps, could be the result of increased vocal effort. Hamsters motivated to produce high calling rates also produced longer calls of broader bandwidth. Thus, the sex differences found could be the result of different sex preferences but also of a sex difference in calling motivation or condition. We suggest that variable and complex USV may have been selected to increase responsiveness of a potential mate by communicating sexual arousal and preventing habituation to the caller.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) Reveal Modest Sex Differences and Nonlinear Signals of Sexual Motivation

Fernández-Vargas

Johnston

2015

PLoS ONE

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“…Different strains have been reported to emit approximately the same types of syllables but at different relative probabilities of occurrence (Panksepp et al, 2007; Choi et al, 2011). Here, the overall category distributions were similar between groups, although deaf animals emitted significantly more chevron syllables.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because we examined all possible transitions, not only those between common syllable types (Choi et al, 2011) or just between jump and nonjump syllables (Holy and Guo, 2005; Kikusui et al, 2011), our assay had the sensitivity to detect subtle syllable sequencing differences between hearing and deaf animals. Despite this sensitivity, the only difference was that deaf animals exhibited more chevron-to-chevron transitions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineered Deafness Reveals That Mouse Courtship Vocalizations Do Not Require Auditory Experience

et al. 2013

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Auditory experience during development is necessary for normal language acquisition in humans. Although songbirds, some cetaceans, and maybe bats may also be vocal learners, vocal learning has yet to be well established for a laboratory mammal. Mice are potentially an excellent model organism for studying mechanisms underlying vocal communication. Mice vocalize in different social contexts, yet whether they learn their vocalizations remains unresolved. To address this question, we compared ultrasonic courtship vocalizations emitted by chronically deaf and normal hearing adult male mice. We deafened CBA/CaJ male mice, engineered to express diphtheria toxin (DT) receptors in hair cells, by systemic injection of DT at postnatal day 2 (P2). By P9, almost all inner hair cells were absent and by P16 all inner and outer hair cells were absent in DTR mice. These mice did not show any auditory brainstem responses as adults. Wild-type littermates, also treated with DT at P2, had normal hair cells and normal auditory brainstem responses. We compared the temporal structure of vocalization bouts, the types of vocalizations, the patterns of syllables, and the acoustic features of each syllable type emitted by hearing and deaf males in the presence of a female. We found that almost all of the vocalization features we examined were similar in hearing and deaf animals. These findings indicate that mice do not need auditory experience during development to produce normal ultrasonic vocalizations in adulthood. We conclude that mouse courtship vocalizations are not acquired through auditory feedback-dependent learning.

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“…The identification of mutations in specific genes associated with human stuttering has allowed the construction of mouse models of the disorder. Mice display rich, context-specific ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that have become increasingly well characterized (11)(12)(13)(14) and have been found to be under substantial genetic control (15)(16)(17). In addition, the brain anatomy and circuitry for vocalization in the mouse has been shown to share similarities with those of humans (18).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

HumanGNPTABstuttering mutations engineered into mice cause vocalization deficits and astrocyte pathology in the corpus callosum

Han

Root

Reyes

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Stuttering is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that has been associated with mutations in genes involved in intracellular trafficking. However, the cellular mechanisms leading to stuttering remain unknown. Engineering a mutation in N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate transferase subunits α and β (GNPTAB) found in humans who stutter into the mouse Gnptab gene resulted in deficits in the flow of ultrasonic vocalizations similar to speech deficits of humans who stutter. Here we show that other human stuttering mutations introduced into this mouse gene, Gnptab Ser321Gly and Ala455Ser, produce the same vocalization deficit in 8-day-old pup isolation calls and do not affect other nonvocal behaviors. Immunohistochemistry showed a marked decrease in staining of astrocytes, particularly in the corpus callosum of the Gnptab Ser321Gly homozygote mice compared to wild-type littermates, while the staining of cerebellar Purkinje cells, oligodendrocytes, microglial cells, and dopaminergic neurons was not significantly different. Diffusion tensor imaging also detected deficits in the corpus callosum of the Gnptab Ser321Gly mice. Using a range of cell type-specific Cre-drivers and a Gnptab conditional knockout line, we found that only astrocyte-specific Gnptab-deficient mice displayed a similar vocalization deficit. These data suggest that vocalization defects in mice carrying human stuttering mutations in Gnptab derive from abnormalities in astrocytes, particularly in the corpus callosum, and provide support for hypotheses that focus on deficits in interhemispheric communication in stuttering.

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Two genetic loci control syllable sequences of ultrasonic courtship vocalizations in inbred mice

Cited by 12 publications

References 26 publications

Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) Reveal Modest Sex Differences and Nonlinear Signals of Sexual Motivation

Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) Reveal Modest Sex Differences and Nonlinear Signals of Sexual Motivation

Engineered Deafness Reveals That Mouse Courtship Vocalizations Do Not Require Auditory Experience

HumanGNPTABstuttering mutations engineered into mice cause vocalization deficits and astrocyte pathology in the corpus callosum

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