Oxytocin receptor is not required for social attachment in prairie voles

Prairie voles are among a small group of mammals that display long-term social attachment between mating partners. Many pharmacological studies show that signaling via the oxytocin receptor (OxtR) is critical for the display of social monogamy in these animals. We used CRISPR-mutagenesis to independently generate three different OxtR null mutant prairie vole lines. OxtR mutants displayed social attachment such that males and females showed a behavioral preference for their mating partners over a stranger of the opposite sex when assayed using different paradigms. Mothers lacking OxtR delivered viable pups, and parents displayed care of their young and raised them to the weanling stage. Together, our studies unexpectedly reveal that OxtR-mediated signaling is genetically dispensable for social attachment, parturition, and parental behavior.