Anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors in olfactory deficient Cnga2 knockout mice

•Mice take the cyclic nucleotide gated channel 2 mutant gene (CNGX) were used.•CNGX mice were congenitally anomic.•CNGX mice showed increased anxiety-like behaviors.•CNGX mice showed increased depressive-like behaviors.•We show olfactory deficiency modulate emotional behaviors in mice.

There is a close neuroanatomical connection between odor and emotional processing. Olfactory dysfunction is found in various neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, mice take the cyclic nucleotide gated channel 2 mutant gene (Cnga2), which is critical for olfactory sensory neurons to generate odor induced action potentials were used. The Cnga2 mice were congenitally anosmic. Adult mice were tested in a series behavioral paradigm such as open field, light/dark box, forced swim test and Y-maze. Our study found that Cnga2 mice showed increased anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors than their wide type siblings. However, Cnga2 mice showed no difference from the wide types when tested in the two-trial recognition Y-maze. The results indicate that innate olfactory deficiency might modulate emotional behaviors in mice.