Meeting Abstract
Animals inhabiting temperate and boreal latitudes experience marked seasonal changes in the quality of their environments and maximize reproductive success by phasing breeding activities with the most favorable time of year. Whereas the specific neuroendocrine mechanisms driving seasonal changes in reproductive function vary across species, converging lines of evidence point to a key role for two, complementary RFamide peptides in guiding this seasonal adaptation. Across mammalian species, the ortholog of avian gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone, RFamide-related peptide-3 (RFRP-3), and kisspeptin are pronounced positive and negative regulators of the reproductive axis, respectively. In addition to anticipating environmental change through transduction of photoperiodic information and modifying reproductive state accordingly, RFRP-3 and kisspeptin are also positioned to regulate acute changes in reproductive status should unpredictable conditions manifest throughout the year. This overview will summarize our findings on the role of RFRP-3 and kisspeptin in mammalian seasonal breeding while considering commonalities and disparities that have emerged from broad investigations across reproductively photoperiodic species. In addition, because rodent species process sexually-relevant chemosensory information differentially across the seasons, our more recent studies explore the neuroendocrine mechanisms by which conspecific chemosensory signals are gated by the olfactory network, including the RFRP-3 and kisspeptin systems. Supported by NIH grant HD050470 and the France-Berkeley Fund.
