The pheromonal information received by the vomeronasal system plays a crucial role in regulating social behaviors such as aggression in mice. Despite accumulating knowledge of the brain regions involved in aggression, the specific vomeronasal receptors and the exact neural circuits responsible for pheromone-mediated aggression remain unknown. Here, we identified one murine vomeronasal receptor, Vmn2r53, that is activated by urine from males of various strains and is responsible for evoking intermale aggression. We prepared a purified pheromonal fraction and Vmn2r53 knockout mice and applied genetic tools for neuronal activity recording, manipulation, and circuit tracing to decipher the neural mechanisms underlying Vmn2r53-mediated aggression. We found that Vmn2r53-mediated aggression is regulated by specific neuronal populations in the ventral premammillary nucleus and the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus. Together, our results shed light on the hypothalamic regulation of male aggression mediated by a single vomeronasal receptor.

犁鼻系统接收到的信息素信息在调节小鼠的攻击性等社会行为中起着至关重要的作用。尽管积累了与攻击相关的大脑区域的知识，但具体的犁鼻受体和负责信息素介导的攻击的确切神经回路仍然未知。在这里，我们确定了一种鼠犁鼻受体 Vmn2r53，它被各种菌株的雄性尿液激活，并负责引起雄性间的攻击。我们制备了纯化的信息素部分和Vmn2r53敲除小鼠并应用遗传工具进行神经元活动记录、操作和电路追踪，以破译 Vmn2r53 介导的攻击的神经机制。我们发现 Vmn2r53 介导的攻击性受腹前乳头核和腹内侧下丘脑核中特定神经元群的调节。总之，我们的结果揭示了由单一犁鼻受体介导的下丘脑对男性攻击性的调节。