Extended Data Fig. 10: Simultaneous recording of MPOAEsr1 and BNSTprEsr1 cells and comparing infanticide and maternal behaviour-induced c-Fos between strains.
From: Antagonistic circuits mediating infanticide and maternal care in female mice
(a) Fibre photometry setup. (b) Viral construct and targeted brain regions. Brain illustrations are produced based on reference atlas from https://atlas.brain-map.org/. (c,d) Representative histological images of 3 mice showing GCaMP6f (green) expression and fibre tracks (white boxes) in MPOA (c) and BNSTpr (d). (e) Experimental timeline. (f) Representative GCaMP6f recording (ΔF/F) traces of MPOAEsr1 (black) and BNSTprEsr1 (purple) cells during pup interaction in a hostile SW virgin female (f1) and a mother (f2). Colour shades indicate various behaviours. (g) PETHs of GCaMP6f signal (Z-score ΔF/F) of MPOAEsr1 (black) and BNSTprEsr1 (purple) cells aligned to the onset of pup approach in hostile virgin females (g1), and mothers (g2). n = 3 mice for each group. Blue dashed lines indicate the onset of pup approach; green dashed lines indicate the mean latency to pup investigation; the red and black dashed lines in g1 indicate the mean latency to attack and stop attacking pups, respectively; the magenta and black dashed lines in g2 indicate the mean latency to retrieve and stop retrieving pups, respectively. Shades: ± SEM. (h) Mean AUC of Z-scored ΔF/F signal of MPOAEsr1 (black) and BNSTprEsr1 (purple) cells during pup approach, investigation, attack, and retrieval in hostile virgin females (h1) and mothers (h2). Two-way RM ANOVA (h1) and Mixed-effects analysis (h2) followed with multiple comparisons test. n = 3 mice for each group, *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, mean ± SEM. (i) BNSTprEsr1 and MPOAEsr1 response ratio in hostile virgin females and mothers during pup interaction period. The red dashed line indicates 1. n = 3 mice for each group, Paired t-test. *p < 0.05, mean ± SEM. (j) Representative histological images of 3 mice in each group showing c-Fos expression in MPOA and BNSTpr of a C57BL/6 virgin maternal female (left), a SW virgin maternal female (middle), and a SW infanticidal female (right). (k, l) Number of c-Fos+ cells in MPOA (k) and BNSTpr (l) in C57BL/6 virgin maternal, SW virgin maternal and SW infanticidal female mice. n = 3 for each group, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. Error bars: ± SEM. One-way ANOVA followed with multiple comparisons test. See Source Data Extended Data Fig. 10 for detailed values and statistics.
