Sex-specific control of feeding and defensive behaviors by MC3R neurons in the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis
Bedenbaugh, M. N.; Doyle, M. A.; Edwards, C. M.; Petersen, N.; Srisai, D.; Hawkins, S. H.; Thomas-Low, N. D.; Mendoza-Romero, H.; Brown, J. A.; Vardy, A. S.; Winder, D. G.; Simerly, R. B.
Show abstract
The bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BST) is a nuclear complex that coordinates neuroendocrine, autonomic, and behavioral responses associated with maintaining homeostasis. Here, we demonstrate that melanocortin 3 receptor (MC3R) neurons in the BST (BSTMC3R) play a key role in modulating feeding behaviors and responses to stressful events. BSTMC3R neurons are primarily GABAergic and colocalize with neuropeptides known to regulate feeding and affective behaviors. Chemogenetic activation of BSTMC3R neurons causes reduced feeding, particularly in males. BSTMC3R neurons are also robustly activated by stress and can control responses to stress and defensive behaviors in both sexes. Whole-brain monosynaptic rabies tracing identified multiple sexually dimorphic inputs to BSTMC3R neurons that may contribute to observed functional sexual dimorphisms. Altogether, these data reveal that BSTMC3R neurons participate in sexually dimorphic circuits that influence feeding and defensive behaviors, responses to stress, and may represent a potential therapeutic target for stress- and eating-related disorders.
Matching journals
The top 7 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- The role of genetically distinct central amygdala neurons in appetitive and aversive responding assayed with a novel dual valence operant conditioning paradigm. 96%
- Measuring nonapoptotic caspase activity with a transgenic reporter in mice 95%
- Dopamine receptor 1 specific CRISPRa mice exhibit disrupted behaviors and striatal baseline cellular activity 95%
Similar papers in this journal
- Nucleus accumbens D1- and D2-expressing neurons control the balance between feeding and activity-mediated energy expenditure 96%
- Supramammillary neurons projecting to the septum regulate dopamine and motivation for environmental interaction 96%
- Distinct ventral tegmental area neuronal ensembles are indispensable for reward-driven approach and stress-driven avoidance behaviors 96%
Similar papers in this journal
- Cell autonomous regulation of the activation of AgRP neurons by the melanocortin-3 receptor 96%
- Septo-hypothalamic regulation of binge-like alcohol consumption by the nociceptin system. 96%
- Hypocretin/orexin neurons encode social discrimination and exhibit a sex-dependent necessity for social interaction 95%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.