Sex differences in mammalian social behavior are complex, and are organized during development by a combination of hormonal, genetic and epigenetic processes. In my laboratory we study the roles that steroid hormone receptors (estrogen and androgen receptors) play in organization of sexually dimorphic neural areas in the brain the are responsible for the adult display of social behaviors. We have found that androgen receptors are required for display of sex differences in social preference behaviors. In addition the newly discovered estrogen receptor, ERβ, is important for the differentiation of an important female sexual behavior called lordosis. Our focus now is on genes that are transcribed by AR during embryogenesis and just after birth that affect neural development of the circuits for social behaviors. A final important set of genes that are sexually dimorphic are the genes on the X and Y chromosomes. Sex chromosome complement affects aggressive and maternal behaviors. Our focus now is discovery of the specific X and/or Y genes that regulate these behaviors.

Selected References

Kauffman AS, Park JH, McPhie-Lalmansingh AA, Gottsch ML, Bodo C, Hohmann JG,Pavlova MN, Rohde AD, Clifton DK, Steiner RA, Rissman EF. (2007) "The kisspeptin receptor GPR54 is required for sexual differentiation of the brain and behavior." J Neurosci. Aug 27(33):8826-35. [PubMed]

Bodo C, Rissman EF. (2007) "Androgen receptor is essential for sexual differentiation of responses to olfactory cues in mice." Eur J Neurosci. 25:2182-90. [PubMed]

Gatewood JD, Wills A, Shetty S, Xu J, Arnold AP, Burgoyne PS, Rissman EF. (2006) "Sex chromosome complement and gonadal sex influence aggressive and parental behaviors in mice." J Neurosci. Feb 26:2335-42. [PubMed]