Esr1-Dependent Signaling and Transcriptional Maturation in the Medial Preoptic Area of the Hypothalamus Shapes the Development of Mating Behavior during Adolescence

Abstract

Mating and other behaviors emerge during adolescence through the coordinated actions of steroid hormone signaling throughout the nervous system and periphery. In this study, we investigated the transcriptional dynamics of the medial preoptic area (MPOA), a critical region for reproductive behavior, using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) and in situ hybridization techniques in male and female mice throughout adolescence development. Our findings reveal that estrogen receptor 1 (Esr1) plays a pivotal role in the transcriptional maturation of GABAergic neurons within the MPOA during adolescence. Deletion of the estrogen receptor gene, Esr1, in GABAergic neurons (Vgat+) disrupted the developmental progression of mating behaviors in both sexes, while its deletion in glutamatergic neurons (Vglut2+) had no observable effect. In males and females, these neurons displayed distinct transcriptional trajectories, with hormone-dependent gene expression patterns emerging throughout adolescence and regulated by Esr1. Esr1 deletion in MPOA GABAergic neurons, prior to adolescence, arrested adolescent transcriptional progression of these cells and uncovered sex-specific gene-regulatory networks associated with Esr1 signaling. Our results underscore the critical role of Esr1 in orchestrating sex-specific transcriptional dynamics during adolescence, revealing gene regulatory networks implicated in the development of hypothalamic controlled reproductive behaviors. One Sentence SummarySingle cell RNA sequencing reveals how adolescent sex hormones sculpt hypothalamic cell types required for mating behavior.