Social Regulation of Gene Expression in the African Cichlid Fish

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen P. Maruska ◽  
Russell D. Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Regulation Of Gene Expression ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
African Cichlid ◽  
The Brain

How does an animal’s social environment shape its behavior and physiology, and what underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms lead to phenotypic changes? To address this question, the authors used a model system that exhibits socially regulated plastic phenotypes, behavioral complexity, molecular level access, and genomic resources. The African cichlid fishAstatotilapia burtoni, in which male status and reproductive physiology are under social control, has become an important model for studying the mechanisms that regulate complex social behaviors. This chapter reviews what is known about how information from the social environment produces changes in behavior, physiology, and gene expression profiles in the brain and reproductive axis ofA. burtoni. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for translating perception of social cues into molecular change in a model vertebrate is important for identifying selective pressures and evolutionary mechanisms that shape the brain and ultimately result in diverse and complex social behaviors.

Social Regulation of Gene Expression in the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis

Physiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 412-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen P. Maruska ◽  
Russell D. Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Regulation Of Gene Expression ◽  
Reproductive Fitness ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Hpg Axis ◽  
Genomic Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Brain

Reproduction is a critically important event in every animals' life and in all vertebrates is controlled by the brain via the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. In many species, this axis, and hence reproductive fitness, can be profoundly influenced by the social environment. Here, we review how the reception of information in a social context causes genomic changes at each level of the HPG axis.

scholarly journals Plasticity of the Reproductive Axis Caused by Social Status Change in an African Cichlid Fish: II. Testicular Gene Expression and Spermatogenesis

Endocrinology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen P. Maruska ◽  
Russell D. Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Steroid Receptors ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Reproductive Capacity ◽  
Receptor Subtypes ◽  
Mrna Levels ◽  
Status Change ◽  
African Cichlid ◽  
Reproductive Axis

Abstract Reproduction in all vertebrates is controlled by the brain-pituitary-gonad (BPG) axis, which is regulated socially in males of the African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni. Although social information influences GnRH1 neurons at the apex of the BPG axis, little is known about how the social environment and dominance affects the cellular and molecular composition of the testes to regulate reproductive capacity. We created an opportunity for reproductively suppressed males to ascend in status and then measured changes in gene expression and tissue morphology to discover how quickly the perception of this opportunity can influence the testes. Our results show rapid up-regulation of mRNA levels of FSH receptor and several steroid receptor subtypes in the testes during social ascent. In contrast, LH receptor was not elevated until 72 h after ascent, but this increase was coincident with elevated circulating androgens and early stages of spermatogenesis, suggesting a role in steroidogenesis. The spermatogenic potential of the testes, as measured by cellular composition, was also elevated before the overall increase in testes size. The presence of cysts at all stages of spermatogenesis, coupled with lower levels of gonadotropin and steroid receptors in subordinate males, suggests that the BPG axis and spermatogenesis are maintained at a subthreshold level in anticipation of the chance to gain a territory and become reproductively active. Our results show that the testis is stimulated extremely quickly after perception of social opportunity, presumably to allow suppressed males to rapidly achieve high reproductive success in a dynamic social environment.

Social regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone

2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (17) ◽  
pp. 2567-2581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. White ◽  
Tuan Nguyen ◽  
Russell D. Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Molecular Probes ◽  
Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Releasing Hormone ◽  
Haplochromis Burtoni ◽  
The Brain

SUMMARY Behavioral interactions among social animals can regulate both reproductive behavior and fertility. A prime example of socially regulated reproduction occurs in the cichlid fish Haplochromis burtoni, in which interactions between males dynamically regulate gonadal function throughout life. This plasticity is mediated by the brain, where neurons that contain the key reproductive regulatory peptide gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)change size reversibly depending on male social status. To understand how behavior controls the brain, we manipulated the social system of these fish,quantified their behavior and then assessed neural and physiological changes in the reproductive and stress axes. GnRH gene expression was assessed using molecular probes specific for the three GnRH forms in the brain of H. burtoni. We found that perception of social opportunity to increase status by a male leads to heightened aggressiveness, to increased expression of only one of the three GnRH forms and to increases in size of GnRH-containing neurons and of the gonads. The biological changes characteristic of social ascent happen faster than changes following social descent. Interestingly, behavioral changes show the reverse pattern:aggressive behaviors emerge more slowly in ascending animals than they disappear in descending animals. Although the gonads and GnRH neurons undergo similar changes in female H. burtoni, regulation occurs viaendogenous rather than exogenous social signals. Our data show that recognition of social signals by males alters stress levels, which may contribute to the alteration in GnRH gene expression in particular neurons essential for the animal to perform in its new social status.

scholarly journals Resilience, plasticity and robustness in gene expression during aging in the brain of outbred deer mice

BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E Soltanmohammadi ◽  
Y Zhang ◽  
I Chatzistamou ◽  
H. Kiaris
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cholesterol Metabolism ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Deer Mice ◽  
Abrupt Changes ◽  
Transcriptional Changes ◽  
Thrombospondin 4 ◽  
Whole Transcriptome ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Background Genes that belong to the same network are frequently co-expressed, but collectively, how the coordination of the whole transcriptome is perturbed during aging remains unclear. To explore this, we calculated the correlation of each gene in the transcriptome with every other, in the brain of young and older outbred deer mice (P. leucopus and P. maniculatus). Results In about 25 % of the genes, coordination was inversed during aging. Gene Ontology analysis in both species, for the genes that exhibited inverse transcriptomic coordination during aging pointed to alterations in the perception of smell, a known impairment occurring during aging. In P. leucopus, alterations in genes related to cholesterol metabolism were also identified. Among the genes that exhibited the most pronounced inversion in their coordination profiles during aging was THBS4, that encodes for thrombospondin-4, a protein that was recently identified as rejuvenation factor in mice. Relatively to its breadth, abolishment of coordination was more prominent in the long-living P. leucopus than in P. maniculatus but in the latter, the intensity of de-coordination was higher. Conclusions There sults suggest that aging is associated with more stringent retention of expression profiles for some genes and more abrupt changes in others, while more subtle but widespread changes in gene expression appear protective. Our findings shed light in the mode of the transcriptional changes occurring in the brain during aging and suggest that strategies aiming to broader but more modest changes in gene expression may be preferrable to correct aging-associated deregulation in gene expression.

Gene expression profiles in the brain of the neonate mouse perinatally exposed to methylmercury and/or polychlorinated biphenyls

2009 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miyuki Shimada ◽  
Satomi Kameo ◽  
Norio Sugawara ◽  
Kozue Yaginuma-Sakurai ◽  
Naoyuki Kurokawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Polychlorinated Biphenyls ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Gene Expression Profiles ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Genetic and epigenetic architecture of sex-biased expression in the jewel wasps Nasonia vitripennis and giraulti

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (27) ◽  
pp. E3545-E3554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Wang ◽  
John H. Werren ◽  
Andrew G. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Regulation Of Gene Expression ◽  
Sequence Divergence ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Nasonia Vitripennis ◽  
Constitutive Gene Expression ◽  
Genome Bisulfite Sequencing

There is extraordinary diversity in sexual dimorphism (SD) among animals, but little is known about its epigenetic basis. To study the epigenetic architecture of SD in a haplodiploid system, we performed RNA-seq and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of adult females and males from two closely related parasitoid wasps, Nasonia vitripennis and Nasonia giraulti. More than 75% of expressed genes displayed significantly sex-biased expression. As a consequence, expression profiles are more similar between species within each sex than between sexes within each species. Furthermore, extremely male- and female-biased genes are enriched for totally different functional categories: male-biased genes for key enzymes in sex-pheromone synthesis and female-biased genes for genes involved in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Remarkably, just 70 highly expressed, extremely male-biased genes account for 10% of all transcripts in adult males. Unlike expression profiles, DNA methylomes are highly similar between sexes within species, with no consistent sex differences in methylation found. Therefore, methylation changes cannot explain the extensive level of sex-biased gene expression observed. Female-biased genes have smaller sequence divergence between species, higher conservation to other hymenopterans, and a broader expression range across development. Overall, female-biased genes have been recruited from genes with more conserved and broadly expressing “house-keeping” functions, whereas male-biased genes are more recently evolved and are predominately testis specific. In summary, Nasonia accomplish a striking degree of sex-biased expression without sex chromosomes or epigenetic differences in methylation. We propose that methylation provides a general signal for constitutive gene expression, whereas other sex-specific signals cause sex-biased gene expression.

Influenza virus-induced sleep responses in mice with targeted disruptions in neuronal or inducible nitric oxide synthases

2004 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichao Chen ◽  
Deborah Duricka ◽  
Scott Nelson ◽  
Sanjib Mukherjee ◽  
Stewart G. Bohnet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Nitric Oxide ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Gene Expression Profiles ◽  
No Synthase ◽  
Cytokine Gene Expression ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement Sleep ◽  
The Brain

Influenza viral infection induces increases in non-rapid eye movement sleep and decreases in rapid eye movement sleep in normal mice. An array of cytokines is produced during the infection, and some of them, such as IL-1β and TNF-α, are well-defined somnogenic substances. It is suggested that nitric oxide (NO) may mediate the sleep-promoting effects of these cytokines. In this study, we use mice with targeted disruptions of either the neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) or the inducible NO synthase (iNOS) gene, commonly referred to as nNOS or iNOS knockouts (KOs), to investigate sleep changes after influenza viral challenge. We report that the magnitude of viral-induced non-rapid eye movement sleep responses in both nNOS KOs and iNOS KOs was less than that of their respective controls. In addition, the duration of rapid eye movement sleep in nNOS KO mice did not decrease compared with baseline values. All strains of mice had similar viral titers and cytokine gene expression profiles in the lungs. Virus was not isolated from the brains of any strain. However, gene expression in the brain stem differed between nNOS KOs and their controls: mRNA for the interferon-induced gene 2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthase 1a was elevated in nNOS KOs relative to their controls at 15 h, and IL-1β mRNA was elevated in nNOS KOs relative to their controls at 48 h. Our results suggest that NO synthesized by both nNOS and iNOS plays a role in virus-induced sleep changes and that nNOS may modulate cytokine expression in the brain.

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