Meeting Abstract
Much of the neural circuitry involved in mediating mating behavior in both male and female vertebrates has been confirmed by tracking the activation of intermediate early genes (IEG). In neurons, these genes are activated early during signal transduction resulting in the expression of specific genes. The presence of specific proteins such as fos, jun and egr-1 families are believed to indicate the initial activation of the genetic machinery of neurons. This study was designed to investigate if mating activates an intermediate early gene in the female red-sided garter snake brain by visualizing the protein c-fos, at specific time intervals following mating. Little is known about c-fos in reptiles. However, it has been reported that in other animals, specific stimuli activate the production of c-fos. It is our hypothesis that following the stimulus of courtship and mating, c-fos will be found within the neural pathways that regulate courtship behavior and mating. C-fos was observed in the brains of time-mated females beginning at time-20 minutes and continuing until time-45 minutes. However, no c-fos was observed in controls, or time-0 or 60 minutes. These initial data have identified a window in which we observed the presence of c-fos production following mating. Further investigation will allow us to refine and define the specific window of c-fos activation by examining post-mated females over a larger number of time intervals.
