Fig. 3
From: RGS2 drives male aggression in mice via the serotonergic system
Exogenous expression of RGS2 in serotonergic neurons induces aggressive behavior in mice. Exogenous expression of RGS2 in serotonergic neurons in ePet-Rgs2hi mice induce aggressive behavior in the resident intruder test without (a–d) and with pups (e, f) compared to their littermate controls (controllo, grey circles; controlhi, black circles). In the resident intruder test without pups ePet-Rgs2hi (squares) mice but not ePet-Rgs2lo (triangles) showed an increase in the number of attacks (a), an increase in the duration of attacks (b), a decrease in latency to first attack (c), and an increase in the number of bites (d) compared to control and ePet-Rgs2lo mice. The ePet-Rgs2hi mice also displayed an increase number (e) and duration (f) of attacks in the resident intruder test with pups compared to control and ePet-Rgs2lo mice. The number of mice tested is indicated within parentheses. Data are reported as mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was evaluated with ANOVA (**p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001). g Aggression in the tube dominance test where mouse pairs are released at opposite ends of a plastic tube. Winners displaced or forced their opponent (loser) out of the tube. Aggression was measured in paired groups of males, littermate controllo (grey) vs. ePet-Rgs2lo (magenta) (g) and littermate controlhi (black) vs. ePet-Rgs2hi (dark blue) (h). Results are indicated as the percentage of displacement per group (winners). Aggressive behavior was pronounced in transgenic mice overexpressing RGS2 in serotonergic neurons. Six trials/mouse were performed with random opponents. The number of mice tested/group is indicated within parentheses
