Faculty Opinions recommendation of Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain.

AbstractCommunication is essential for social animals, but deciding how to utilize information provided by conspecifics is a complex process that depends on environmental and intrinsic factors. Honey bees use a unique form of communication, the waggle dance, to inform nestmates about the location of food sources. However, as in many other animals, experienced individuals often ignore this social information and prefer to rely on prior experiences, i.e. private information. The neurosensory factors that drive the decision to use social information are not yet understood. Here we test whether the decision to use social dance information or private information is linked to gene expression differences in different parts of the nervous system. We trained bees to collect food from sugar water feeders and observed whether they utilize social or private information when exposed to dances for a new food source. We performed transcriptome analysis of four brain parts critical for cognition: the subesophageal ganglion, the central brain, the mushroom bodies, and the antennal lobes but, unexpectedly, detected no differences between social or private information users. In contrast, we found 413 differentially expressed genes in the antennae, suggesting that variation in sensory perception mediate the decision to use social information. Social information users were characterized by the upregulation of dopamine and serotonin genes while private information users upregualted several genes coding for odor perception. These results highlight that decision making in honey bees might also depend on peripheral processes of perception rather than higher-order brain centers of information integration.

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Gene Expression Profiles in the Brain Predict Behavior in Individual Honey Bees

Science ◽

10.1126/science.1086807 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 302 (5643) ◽

pp. 296-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 373

Author(s):

C. W. Whitfield

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Honey Bees ◽

Expression Profiles ◽

Gene Expression Profiles ◽

The Brain

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1805-P: Insulin Regulates a Broad Network of Gene Expression in the Brain to Regulated Brain Metabolism and Neurotransmission

Diabetes ◽

10.2337/db19-1805-p ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 68 (Supplement 1) ◽

pp. 1805-P

Author(s):

WEIKANG CAI ◽

THIAGO M. BATISTA ◽

RUBEN GARCIA MARTIN ◽

ALFRED RAMIREZ ◽

MASAHIRO KONISHI ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Brain Metabolism ◽

The Brain

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Alternative splicing during mammalian organ development

Nature Genetics ◽

10.1038/s41588-021-00851-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pavel V. Mazin ◽

Philipp Khaitovich ◽

Margarida Cardoso-Moreira ◽

Henrik Kaessmann

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Alternative Splicing ◽

Regulatory Networks ◽

Organ Development ◽

Functional Diversification ◽

Mammalian Genomes ◽

Species Comparisons ◽

Time Specific ◽

The Brain ◽

Gene Expression Levels

AbstractAlternative splicing (AS) is pervasive in mammalian genomes, yet cross-species comparisons have been largely restricted to adult tissues and the functionality of most AS events remains unclear. We assessed AS patterns across pre- and postnatal development of seven organs in six mammals and a bird. Our analyses revealed that developmentally dynamic AS events, which are especially prevalent in the brain, are substantially more conserved than nondynamic ones. Cassette exons with increasing inclusion frequencies during development show the strongest signals of conserved and regulated AS. Newly emerged cassette exons are typically incorporated late in testis development, but those retained during evolution are predominantly brain specific. Our work suggests that an intricate interplay of programs controlling gene expression levels and AS is fundamental to organ development, especially for the brain and heart. In these regulatory networks, AS affords substantial functional diversification of genes through the generation of tissue- and time-specific isoforms from broadly expressed genes.

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LSD1 enzyme inhibitor TAK-418 unlocks aberrant epigenetic machinery and improves autism symptoms in neurodevelopmental disorder models

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.aba1187 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. eaba1187

Author(s):

Rina Baba ◽

Satoru Matsuda ◽

Yuuichi Arakawa ◽

Ryuji Yamada ◽

Noriko Suzuki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Enzyme Activity ◽

Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽

Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽

Specific Inhibitor ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Poly I:C ◽

Control Of Gene Expression ◽

Epigenetic Machinery ◽

The Brain

Persistent epigenetic dysregulation may underlie the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we show that the inhibition of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) enzyme activity normalizes aberrant epigenetic control of gene expression in neurodevelopmental disorders. Maternal exposure to valproate or poly I:C caused sustained dysregulation of gene expression in the brain and ASD-like social and cognitive deficits after birth in rodents. Unexpectedly, a specific inhibitor of LSD1 enzyme activity, 5-((1R,2R)-2-((cyclopropylmethyl)amino)cyclopropyl)-N-(tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4-yl)thiophene-3-carboxamide hydrochloride (TAK-418), almost completely normalized the dysregulated gene expression in the brain and ameliorated some ASD-like behaviors in these models. The genes modulated by TAK-418 were almost completely different across the models and their ages. These results suggest that LSD1 enzyme activity may stabilize the aberrant epigenetic machinery in neurodevelopmental disorders, and the inhibition of LSD1 enzyme activity may be the master key to recover gene expression homeostasis. TAK-418 may benefit patients with neurodevelopmental disorders.

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A gene expression atlas for different kinds of stress in the mouse brain

Scientific Data ◽

10.1038/s41597-020-00772-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tiziano Flati ◽

Silvia Gioiosa ◽

Giovanni Chillemi ◽

Andrea Mele ◽

Alberto Oliverio ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Coping With Stress ◽

Gene Expression Atlas ◽

Sequence Read Archive ◽

Brain Transcriptome ◽

Expression Atlas ◽

Differential Gene ◽

Stress Related Genes ◽

Public Repositories ◽

The Brain

AbstractStressful experiences are part of everyday life and animals have evolved physiological and behavioral responses aimed at coping with stress and maintaining homeostasis. However, repeated or intense stress can induce maladaptive reactions leading to behavioral disorders. Adaptations in the brain, mediated by changes in gene expression, have a crucial role in the stress response. Recent years have seen a tremendous increase in studies on the transcriptional effects of stress. The input raw data are freely available from public repositories and represent a wealth of information for further global and integrative retrospective analyses. We downloaded from the Sequence Read Archive 751 samples (SRA-experiments), from 18 independent BioProjects studying the effects of different stressors on the brain transcriptome in mice. We performed a massive bioinformatics re-analysis applying a single, standardized pipeline for computing differential gene expression. This data mining allowed the identification of novel candidate stress-related genes and specific signatures associated with different stress conditions. The large amount of computational results produced was systematized in the interactive “Stress Mice Portal”.

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Are Honey Bees at Risk from Microplastics?

Toxics ◽

10.3390/toxics9050109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 109

Author(s):

Yahya Al Naggar ◽

Markus Brinkmann ◽

Christie M. Sayes ◽

Saad N. AL-Kahtani ◽

Showket A. Dar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Gut Microbiota ◽

Honey Bees ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Aquatic Systems ◽

Wide Spread ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Persistent Pollutants ◽

Research Questions

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous and persistent pollutants, and have been detected in a wide variety of media, from soils to aquatic systems. MPs, consisting primarily of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyacrylamide polymers, have recently been found in 12% of samples of honey collected in Ecuador. Recently, MPs have also been identified in honey bees collected from apiaries in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as nearby semiurban and rural areas. Given these documented exposures, assessment of their effects is critical for understanding the risks of MP exposure to honey bees. Exposure to polystyrene (PS)-MPs decreased diversity of the honey bee gut microbiota, followed by changes in gene expression related to oxidative damage, detoxification, and immunity. As a result, the aim of this perspective was to investigate whether wide-spread prevalence of MPs might have unintended negative effects on health and fitness of honey bees, as well as to draw the scientific community’s attention to the possible risks of MPs to the fitness of honey bees. Several research questions must be answered before MPs can be considered a potential threat to bees.

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The brain transcriptome of the wolf spider, Schizocosa ocreata

BMC Research Notes ◽

10.1186/s13104-021-05648-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Stribling ◽

Peter L. Chang ◽

Justin E. Dalton ◽

Christopher A. Conow ◽

Malcolm Rosenthal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

De Novo ◽

Transcriptome Assembly ◽

Model Organisms ◽

De Novo Transcriptome Assembly ◽

De Novo Transcriptome ◽

Wolf Spiders ◽

Schizocosa Ocreata ◽

Genomic Studies ◽

The Brain

Abstract Objectives Arachnids have fascinating and unique biology, particularly for questions on sex differences and behavior, creating the potential for development of powerful emerging models in this group. Recent advances in genomic techniques have paved the way for a significant increase in the breadth of genomic studies in non-model organisms. One growing area of research is comparative transcriptomics. When phylogenetic relationships to model organisms are known, comparative genomic studies provide context for analysis of homologous genes and pathways. The goal of this study was to lay the groundwork for comparative transcriptomics of sex differences in the brain of wolf spiders, a non-model organism of the pyhlum Euarthropoda, by generating transcriptomes and analyzing gene expression. Data description To examine sex-differential gene expression, short read transcript sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly were performed. Messenger RNA was isolated from brain tissue of male and female subadult and mature wolf spiders (Schizocosa ocreata). The raw data consist of sequences for the two different life stages in each sex. Computational analyses on these data include de novo transcriptome assembly and differential expression analyses. Sample-specific and combined transcriptomes, gene annotations, and differential expression results are described in this data note and are available from publicly-available databases.

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Bile Acids in Dementia: Brain Amyloid, White Matter Lesions, and Atrophy

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2772 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 767-768

Author(s):

Vijay Varma ◽

Youjin Wang ◽

Yang An ◽

Sudhir Varma ◽

Murat Bilgel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Bile Acids ◽

White Matter Lesions ◽

Pharmacological Modulation ◽

Dementia Risk ◽

The Brain ◽

Step Study ◽

Brain Amyloid Deposition ◽

Gene Expression Levels

Abstract While Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) may be accelerated by hypercholesterolemia, the mechanisms underlying this association is unclear. Using a novel, 3-step study design we examined the role of cholesterol catabolism in dementia by testing whether 1) the synthesis of the primary cholesterol breakdown products (bile acids (BA)) were associated with neuroimaging markers of dementia; 2) pharmacological modulation of BAs alters dementia risk; and 3) brain BA concentrations and gene expression were associated with AD. We found that higher serum concentrations of BAs are associated with lower brain amyloid deposition, slower WML accumulation, and slower brain atrophy in males. Opposite effects were observed in females. Modulation of BA levels alters risk of incident VaD in males. Altered brain BA signaling at the metabolite and gene expression levels occurs in AD. Dysregulation of peripheral cholesterol catabolism and BA synthesis may impact dementia pathogenesis through signaling pathways in the brain.

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