Non-random pheromone-controlled cell type differentiation

By: James V. Kohl | Published on: August 18, 2016

Experience-Dependent Plasticity Drives Individual Differences in Pheromone-Sensing Neurons Aug 17, 2016

 
•Individual differences in cell types are not random
•Sex differences in pheromone-sensing neurons are controlled by experience
•Changes in specific cell types are governed via “use it and lose it” plasticity
•Targeting plasticity to specific cell types changes animal behavior

This was reported as: Long-term exposure to female scents changes courtship behavior in male mice
The senior author co-authored Chromatin remodeling inactivates activity genes and regulates neural coding July 15, 2016
It was reported as: Chromatin controls behavior
Rarely do serious scientists see this degree of tractable deception.  Timothy E. Holy pretends not to know that non-random cell type differences are nutrient energy-dependent and that they are controlled by the metabolism of nutrients to species-specific pheromones in species from microbes to mammals.
Chromatin remodeling is energy-dependent and it links metabolic networks to genetic networks in all living genera. The experience-dependent de novo creation of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) clearly links the plasticity of pheromone-sensing neurons from GPCRs to chemotaxis and phototaxis, which are receptor-mediated behaviors. The claim that chromatin controls behavior can be replaced with the accurate claim that odors and pheromones control energy-dependent RNA methylation, which links learning and memory from RNA-directed DNA methylation to cell type differentiation in all living genera.
See for instance: Olfactory organ of Octopus vulgaris: morphology, plasticity, turnover and sensory characterization April 11, 2016

Our previous finding about the presence of neuropeptides involved in the regulation of food intake and reproduction (Di Cosmo and Polese, 2014; Polese et al., 2015) mainly localized in cell type 2 and 3, together with the data presented in this study where the OMP immunoreactivity is confined to these two types of OSNs, strongly suggests that OSNs change their position and role as they mature.

The same claim is made in Experience-Dependent Plasticity Drives Individual Differences in Pheromone-Sensing Neurons.
Anna Di Cosmo’s group had already linked experience dependent plasticity from olfaction to morphology, plasticity, turnover and sensory characterization. Others have claimed that Feedback loops link odor and pheromone signaling with reproduction and in our 1996 Hormones and Behavior review we linked pheromones From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior.
Twenty years later, Timothy E. Holy’s group concludes:

Altogether, the mechanism of plasticity remains unknown and an important topic for future studies.

That’s what is known as a plea for funding among serious scientists. Pseudoscientists must include it in each published work as attempts are made to focus on what is not known instead of what is known to all serious scientists about experience-dependent RNA-mediated cell type differentiation.
See for comparison: Nutrient-dependent/pheromone-controlled adaptive evolution: a model (2013) as cited in Role of olfaction in Octopus vulgaris reproduction (2015)

Future work on O. vulgaris olfaction must also consider how animals acquire the odours detected by the olfactory organ and what kind of odour the olfactory organ perceives. The OL acting as control centre may be target organ for metabolic hormones such as leptin like and insulin like peptides, and olfactory organ could exert regulatory action on the OL via epigenetic effects of nutrients and pheromones on gene expression (Kohl, 2013; Elekonich and Robinson, 2000).

See also: Elekonich and Robinson(2000) Organizational and activational effects of hormones on insect behavior

The development of species-typical and sex-specific adult behaviors in vertebrate animals is influenced by gonadal steroid hormones, non-gonadal hormones, and non-hormonal factors working on the underlying neural circuitry (reviewed in Diamond et al., 1996; Kawata, 1995; Schlinger, 1998).

Diamond et al. (1996) is our review: From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior. Timothy E. Holy’s group ignored two decades of published works that established these claims:

•Individual differences in cell types are not random
•Sex differences in pheromone-sensing neurons are controlled by experience
•Changes in specific cell types are governed via “use it and lose it” plasticity
•Targeting plasticity to specific cell types changes animal behavior

 
 


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