Fig. 2: A vSub → VMH circuit mediates FO exposure-induced hypophagia.

a Experimental scheme. b Representative c-Fos images in the vSub from mice exposed to odors from Ctrl, chow, isoamyl acetate, and acetic acid. c Quantification of c-Fos⁺ cells in (b). n = 3 mice per group. d Scheme for virus injection in the vSub. Representative images of virus expression in the vSub (e) and fibers in the VMH (f). g Representative traces of blue light-evoked postsynaptic current in VMH neurons in the core region in the presence of TTX and 4-AP (black) and DNQX (red). h Scheme for virus injection in the vSub and VMH of WT mice. i Experimental scheme. GCaMP6m signals aligned to odor sniffing events (j) and quantification of peak ΔF/F% response (k) in VMH-projecting vSub neurons in response to odors from chow, isoamyl acetate, and acetic acid. n = 4 mice per group. l Representative trace of GCaMP6m signals in long-term recordings during baseline and 30-min chow odor exposure. m Quantification of area under the curve (AUC) per second during baseline and chow odor exposure. n = 5 mice per group. n Scheme for virus injection in the vSub and VMH of WT mice. o Chow intake at 1, 2, 3 h from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm in chow-fed male mice with yellow or blue light stimulation. n = 6 mice per group. One-way ANOVA with post hoc Dunnett’s test in (c, k); Paired two-tailed t-tests in (m). Two-way ANOVA with post hoc Sidak’s multiple comparisons in (o). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Data are presented as mean ± SEM in (j), and as mean ± SEM with individual data points in (k, o). Source data are provided as a Source data file. The Schematics in (a, d, h, i, n) were created in BioRender. He, Y. (2025) https://BioRender.com/j11htgr.