Project description:Mammalian infants depend on parental care for survival, with numerous consequences for their behavioral development. We investigated the epigenetic and neurodevelopmental mechanisms mediating the impact of early parental care on social behavior development in prairie voles. We find widespread male specific differential expression of genes related to synaptic transmission and autism in the nucleus accumbens.
Project description:For many species, parental care critically affects offspring survival. But what drives animals to display parental behaviours towards young? In mammals, pregnancy‐induced physiological transformations seem key in preparing the neural circuits that lead towards attraction (and reduced‐aggression) to young. Beyond mammalian maternal behaviour, knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie young‐directed parental care is severely lacking. We took advantage of a domesticated bird species, the Japanese quail, for which parental behaviour towards chicks can be induced in virgin non‐ reproductive adults through a sensitization procedure, a process that is not effective in all animals. We used the variation in parental responses to study neural transcriptomic changes associated with the sensitization procedure itself and with the outcome of the procedure (i.e., presence of parental behaviours). We found differences in gene expression in the hypothalamus and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, but not the nucleus taeniae. Two genes identified are of particular interest. One is neurotensin, previously only demonstrated to be causally associated with maternal care in mammals. The other one is urocortin 3, causally demonstrated to affect young‐directed neglect and aggression in mammals. Because our studies were conducted in animals that were reproductively quiescent, our results reflect core neural changes that may be associated with avian young‐directed care independently of extensive hormonal stimulation. Our work opens new avenues of research into understanding the neural basis of parental care in non‐placental species.
Project description:This dataset contains RNA sequencing results from adult male prairie voles that were in either opposite-sex or same-sex pairs that were subsequently either separated from or remained paired with their partner for either 48 hours or 4 weeks prior to collecting nucleus accumbens tissue. The goal of this experiment was to determine the nucleus accumbens transcriptional response specific to separation from an opposite-sex partner. RNA sequencing was done on polyA enriched transcripts using Illumina single-end sequencing. Samples from 3 groups were from a Ribo-seq protocol using a virally delievered, vole optimized Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification construct (Heiman et al., 2008). These samples contain files for both the input fraction and the pulldown fraction (denoted with a _P suffix).
Project description:Animal models provide opportunity to study neurobiological aspects of human alcoholism. Changes in gene expression have been implicated in mediating brain function, including reward system and addiction. The current study aimed to identify novel genes that may underlie ethanol preference. Microarray analysis comparing gene expression in nucleus accumbens (NAc), hippocampus (HP) and prefrontal medial cortex (mPFC) was performed in two rat strains selected for extreme levels of ethanol preference - Warsaw High Preferring (WHP) and Warsaw Low Preferring (WLP). The identified candidate genes may underlie differential ethanol preference in rat model of alcoholism. This is analysis of 18 RNA samples, including 9 technical replicates. Two strains of rats selected for extreme levels of ethanol preference (low preferring WLP and high preferring WHP) were compared. Three brain areas (nucleus accumbens, prefrontal medial cortex and hippocampus) were studied. For each brain area, 6 RNA samples (including 3 technical replicates) were analyzed. Each RNA sample consist of of equal amounts of total RNA from 3 male rats. Comparisons: Nucleus accumbens of WHP vs. Nucleus accumbens of WLP; Prefrontal medial cortex of WHP vs. Prefrontal medial cortex of WLP; Hippocampus of WHP vs. Hippocampus of WLP. 3 biological replicates in each comparison.
Project description:The discus fish, Symphysodon spp., a South American cichlid, has a unique parental care behavior where fry bite on parental skin mucus after hatching. In this study, we used LC-MS/MS technique to compare the skin mucus proteome composition of male or female discus fish during parental and non-parental care periods. By multivariate statistical analysis, we found clear separations between different periods and between different sexes of mucus proteome. Compared with non-parental female fish, parental female fish had 283 up-regulated and 235 down-regulated expressed proteins. Compared with non-parental male fish, parental male fish had 169 up-regulated and 120 down-regulated expressed proteins. The differentially expressed proteins for male fish were enriched in sulfur relay system, mucin type O-glycan biosynthesis and antigen processing and presentation pathways, while those for female fish were enriched in sulfur relay system, steroid biosynthesis and complement and coagulation cascades pathways. During the parental care, both male and female discus showed an enhanced lipid metabolism, producing more phospholipids and cholesterol. The difference is that male discus had increased tricarboxylic acid cycle producing more energy during the parental care, while females produced more nucleotides especially guanylic acid. Our study could provide new insights into the understanding of the unique mucus supply behavior of discus fish based on proteomic change.
Project description:Prenatal exposure to infectious or inflammatory insults can increase the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders with neurodevelopmental components, including schizophrenia and autism. The molecular processes underlying this pathological association are only partially understood. Here, we implemented an unbiased genome-wide transcriptional profiling of the nucleus accumbens of mice exposed to prenatal infection on GD17 compared to control subjects in order to elucidate the long term molecular signature of late prenatal infection. We used microarray analysis to investigate the long lasting gene expression changes in a well-established mouse model that is based on maternal treatment with the viral mimic poly(I:C) during pregnancy C57BL/6 mice were treated with the synthetic viral mimetic poly(I:C) (5 mg/kg, i.v.) or control (saline, i.v.) solution on gestation day 17. Offspring were subjected to cognitive and behavioral testing in adulthood, and then whole genome gene expression analysis with Affymetrix Microarray and subsequent q-PCR validation were performed on the nucleus accumbens.
Project description:DNA methylation profiling of nucleus Accumbens of rats that self administered cocaine, were subjected to 30 withdrawal days, were treated with aCSF, RG108 or SAM and were subjected to extinction tests. The groups consist of: 1. Rats that self-administered cocaine for 10 days and that were subjected to a withdrawal period of 30 days, were injected in the nucleus accumbens with aCSF and were subjected to an extinction test for assessment of cue-induced cocaine-seeking behavior (aCSF) 2. Rats that self-administered cocaine for 10 days and that were subjected to a withdrawal period of 30 days, were injected in the nucleus accumbens with RG108 and were subjected to an extinction test for assessment of cue-induced cocaine-seeking behavior (RG108) 3. Rats that self-administered cocaine for 10 days and that were subjected to a withdrawal period of 30 days, were injected in the nucleus accumbens with SAM and were subjected to an extinction test for assessment of cue-induced cocaine-seeking behavior (SAM)