2. Academic Validation
  3. Functional New World monkey oxytocin forms elicit an altered signaling profile and promotes parental care in rats

Functional New World monkey oxytocin forms elicit an altered signaling profile and promotes parental care in rats

  • Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Aug 22;114(34):9044-9049. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1711687114.
Lucas T Parreiras-E-Silva 1,  Pedro Vargas-Pinilla 2,  Diego A Duarte 1,  Dânae Longo 2 3,  Grace Violeta Espinoza Pardo 4,  Andrea Dulor Finkler 4,  Vanessa Rodrigues Paixão-Côrtes 5,  Pâmela Paré 2,  Diego L Rovaris 2,  Eduardo B Oliveira 1,  Rafael Andrade Caceres 6,  Gislene L Gonçalves 2,  Michel Bouvier 7 8,  Francisco M Salzano 9,  Aldo B Lucion 10,  Claudio M Costa-Neto 11,  Maria Cátira Bortolini 9
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-900 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
  • 2 Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • 3 Instituto Federal Farroupilha, 97555-000 Alegrete, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • 4 Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 90050-170 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • 5 Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 40170-290 Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
  • 6 Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, 90050-170 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • 7 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada.
  • 8 Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada.
  • 9 Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
  • 10 Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 90050-170 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
  • 11 Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-900 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
PMID: 28784762 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1711687114
Abstract

The neurohormone oxytocin is a key player in the modulation of reproductive and social behavioral traits, such as parental care. Recently, a correlation between different forms of oxytocin and behavioral phenotypes has been described in the New World Monkeys (NWMs). Here, we demonstrate that, compared with the Leu8OXT found in most placental mammals, the Cebidae Pro8OXT and Saguinus Val3Pro8OXT taxon-specific variants act as equi-efficacious agonists for the Gq-dependent pathway but are weaker agonists for the β-arrestin engagement and subsequent endocytosis toward the Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR). Upon interaction with the AVPR1a, Pro8OXT and the common Leu8OXT yielded similar signaling profiles, being equally efficacious on Gq and β-arrestin, while Val3Pro8OXT showed reduced relative efficacy toward β-arrestin. Intranasal treatment with either of the variants increased maternal behavior and also promoted unusual paternal care in rats, as measured by pup-retrieval tests. We therefore suggest that Val3Pro8OXT and Pro8OXT are functional variants, which might have been evolutionarily co-opted as an essential part of the adaptive genetic repertoire that allowed the emergence of taxon-specific complex social behaviors, such as intense parental care in the Cebidae and the genus Saguinus.

Keywords

biased agonism; oxytocin variants; paternal care; primates; social behaviors.

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