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Gender bender study breakthrough

Scientists have found a way to turn female mice into aggressive, pelvic-thrusting masculine lotharios in an experiment that challenges established dogma.

Image on the left: The female mouse (right) attempting to mount the male

The focus of sex specific behaviour in many species - though not humans - now shifts from brain to a small sensory organ found in the noses of of most backboned creatures, except higher primates and birds.

The research of the research team indicates that defects in this organ, known as the vomeronasal organ, lead female mice to act like males, soliciting them, mounting them and thrusting them while abandoning nesting and nursing.

"My work has nothing to do with humans," explained Prof Dulac. "The work may provide indirectly some new clues on how to understand and analyze differences between males an females in animals in general, but humans will be the hardest to study."

Female mice with a mutation that disables the vomeronasal organ, which works along with the nose to detect pheromones, would engage in typically male courtship activity: chasing their cagemates, lifting the males' hindquarters with their snouts, and making complex ultrasonic squeaks that are part of the male mouse's mating ritual. Eventually, the female mutants would mount the hapless males, thrusting.

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