Piezo2 and perineal mechanosensation are essential for sexual function

Despite the potential importance of genital mechanosensation for sexual reproduction little is known about how perineal touch influences mating. Here we explored how mechanosensation affords exquisite awareness of the genitals and controls reproduction in mice and humans. Using genetic strategies and in vivo functional imaging, we demonstrated that the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo2 is necessary for behavioral sensitivity to perineal touch. Notably, Piezo2-function is needed for triggering a touch-evoked erection reflex and successful mating in both male and female mice. Humans with complete loss of PIEZO2 function have genital hyposensitivity and experience no direct pleasure from gentle touch or vibration. Together, our results explain how perineal mechanoreceptors detect the gentlest of stimuli and trigger physiologically important sexual responses, providing a platform for exploring the sensory basis of sexual pleasure and its relationship to affective touch., , IVcalcium-final.csv: GCamp calcium imaging data. Each line corresponds to a cell/ROI, columns identify sex, genotype, recording date, ROI name and stimulation area. The remaining numbered columns are the concatenated calcium traces imaged at 5Hz for 200 frames per stimulus. Stimuli are (in order) air puff, brush, pinch, vibration, Von Frey 1.4g, Von Frey 1.0g, Von Frey 0.6g, Von Frey 0.4g, Von Frey 0.16g, Von Frey 0.07g, Von Frey 0.04g,  Von Frey 0.02g, Von Frey 0.008g 
Scn10aCreGCamp-traces.csv: Calcium imaging data from Scn10a-Cre/GCamp mice. Each line corresponds to a cell/ROI, columns are the concatenated calcium traces imaged at 5Hz for 200 frames per stimulus. Stimuli are (in order) air puff, brush, pinch, vibration, Von Frey 1.4g, Von Frey 1.0g, Von Frey 0.6g, Von Frey 0.4g, Von Frey 0.16g, Von Frey 0.07g, Von Frey 0.04g,  Von Frey 0.02g, Von Frey 0.008g 
Ethogram_data.csv: Behavioral data of mating mice manually scored in BORIS software. Each line specifies an event. Experiment ...