Conditional Deletion of ERK5 MAP Kinase in the Nervous System Impairs Pheromone Information Processing and Pheromone-Evoked Behaviors
Figure 3
Conditional deletion of ERK5 impairs male mice’s preference for normal and estrous female pheromones.
A, ERK5 cKO mice are able to discriminate between the ovariectomized (OVX) urine and the estrous urine, although they display reduced level of interest to the estrous urine compared with their WT littermates. Ovariectomized mice were artificially cycled with the estradiol and progesterone and the urine collected before hormone injection was used as the ovariectomized urine, while urine collected after hormone injection was used as the estrous urine. The subject mice were presented with one cotton swab laced with ovariectomized urine for 4 trials followed by one trial of the estrous urine. B, Male ERK5 cKO mice do not prefer urine from estrous females over that from ovariectomized females. Mice were presented simultaneously with two cotton swabs laced with urine samples collected and pooled from a group of ovariectomized female mice either before or after the artificial cycling with the estradiol and progesterone. C, Male ERK5 cKO mice lost their innate preference for the female urine versus male urine. Mice were presented simultaneously with two cotton swabs laced with male or female urine samples respectively. n.s., not significant; *, p<0.05; ***, p<0.001.