INDUCTION OF THE ZENK PROTEIN AFTER SEXUAL INTERACTIONS IN MALE JAPANESE-QUAIL

WE mapped cells immunoreactive (ir) for the protein encoded by the imm ediate early gene zenk in the brains of male Japanese quail after they engaged in either appetitive or consummatory sexual behavior (i.e. co pulation). Castrated males treated with testosterone were either allow ed to copulate with a female or exhibited a learned social proximity r esponse indicative of appetitive sexual behavior, and were compared wi th control males in their home cage or in the experimental chamber but not exhibiting the proximity response. Copulation increased the numbe r of ZENK-ir cells in the nucleus striae terminalis and the nucleus in tercollicularis, while both copulation and the proximity response indu ced increases in the medial and anterior ventral hyperstriatum. These results indicate that zenk is induced in the context of sexual behavio r.