Olfaction is the primary sensory modality governing maternal behavior in rodents. To meet the demands of maternal care, the brain undergoes extensive and temporally dynamic plasticity during the perinatal period, particularly within the olfactory bulb (OB). However, longitudinal data describing the molecular landscape of the OB across the entire reproductive cycle are currently unavailable. We generated a high-resolution transcriptomic dataset of the mouse OB to map molecular reprogramming events during reproduction. Samples were collected at five strategic time points: non-pregnancy, gestation day 10, parturition, postpartum day 7, and weaning. Using bulk RNA-seq, we constructed a dynamic transcriptomic atlas of the maternal OB. This dataset captures stage-specific gene expression changes associated with neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and neuromodulation. This work provides a critical molecular resource to facilitate future research into the adaptive remodeling of the maternal neural circuit.
Song et al. (Thu,) studied this question.