Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Laboratory for Systems Molecular Ethology, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Japan
Junpei Yamashita
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Keiko Yokoyama
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Yukiko Kikuchi
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Daichi Miyazoe
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Yuji Nishiike
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Kaito Ishikawa
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Kohei Hosono
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Yukika Kawabata-Sakata
Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Pathophysiology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan
Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; Laboratory of Bioresources, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan
Masato Kinoshita
Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Yoshitaka Nagahama
Division of Reproductive Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan
Male and female animals display innate sex-specific mating behaviors. In teleost fish, altering the adult sex steroid milieu can effectively reverse sex-typical mating behaviors, suggesting remarkable sexual lability of their brains as adults. In the teleost medaka, neuropeptide B (NPB) is expressed female-specifically in the brain nuclei implicated in mating behavior. Here, we demonstrate that NPB is a direct mediator of estrogen action on female mating behavior, acting in a female-specific but reversible manner. Analysis of regulatory mechanisms revealed that the female-specific expression of NPB is dependent on direct transcriptional activation by estrogen via an estrogen-responsive element and is reversed in response to changes in the adult sex steroid milieu. Behavioral studies of NPB knockouts revealed that female-specific NBP mediates female receptivity to male courtship. The female-specific NPB signaling identified herein is presumably a critical element of the neural circuitry underlying sexual dimorphism and lability of mating behaviors in teleosts.
